Church of St Editha, Tamworth, Staffordshire
Address
Church of St Editha, St Editha's Close, Tamworth, Staffordshire B79 7DARecommended by
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West windowArtist, maker and date
Designed by Alan Younger and George Gaze Pace, and made by Alan Younger, 1975Reason for highlighting
Throughout his career, the important ecclesiastical architect and designer, George Pace, fitted his churches – his new ones and ones he repaired and restored – with inventive and distinctive plain glazing. There are broadly two main types, both highly original. That which descends like a trembling veil of closely-spaced verticals as here at Saint Editha, Tamworth, Staffordshire, and that in which rectangular quarries rise to a dense swirl of airy curvilinear tracery-like patterns of leading, like the South Transept at Church Fenton, near York. Both types have been extremely influential on subsequent designers.
Notice how Alan Younger’s west window is in perfect harmony with the rhythm of Pace’s work. Indeed, Younger later collaborated several times with Pace’s partner Ron Sims.
Artist/maker notes
Alan Christopher Wyrill Younger (1933 – 2004) was born in London and worked with successively, Carl Edwards and Lawrence Lee before combining teaching with his own work. A fine colourist and advocate of the glories of stained glass, his work is found in many British cathedrals, including the great rose window at St Albans and the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey, along with many churches throughout the country.
Source: Alan Younger’s obituary in The Independent
George Gaze Pace (1915-75) was the most significant and prolific British ecclesiastical architect of his generation, eventually caring for nine cathedrals and many hundreds of churches. He designed several dramatic and influential modernist churches, as well as huge quantities of church furnishings, plate, decoration, glazing and even vestments. He had a profound respect for the role of traditional craft skills and building techniques in a contemporary context which places him in the Arts and Crafts succession.
Other comments
The church also has a number of interesting nineteenth and twentieth century windows that make for some interesting contrasts. From the 1870s compare the different styles of William Wailes and Morris & Co. The latter to designs by Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown. Then there is a contrast over time in the work of Henry Holiday. His earlier windows, from the 1880s and made by James Powell & Sons, contrast to his World War One memorial windows. Finally, from after World War Two there is a window of 1949 by G E R Smith that can be compared to two fine windows from the T. W. Camm Studio, both dedicated in 1951.