Lawrence Lee, east window (1970), Church of St James, Milton Abbas, Dorset.

Photo: Peter Hildebrand

Lawrence Lee, detail of east window (1970), Church of St James, Milton Abbas, Dorset.

Photo: Peter Hildebrand

Church of St James, Milton Abbas, Dorset

Address

Church of St James, Milton Abbas, Blandford Forum DT11 0BW

Recommended by

Sasha Ward (10)

Highlight

East window

Artist, maker and date

Lawrence Lee, 1970

Reason for highlighting

This is a great example of a 1970s window that fits unobtrusively in to the tracery, nothing jars. There are lovely details of buildings, stars and symbols hidden in the mosaic of glass pieces, the painting on the figures in particular remind me of inky black and white book illustration of the same period.

Other comments

Read Lawrence Lee’s book “The Appreciation of Stained Glass” which was one in the series on the appreciation of the arts published by the Oxford University Press in 1977. I read it in preparation for my foundation course at The Central School of Art in that year and find, on rereading, it’s where I picked up a lot of the opinions I still have.

Lawrence Lee was assisted in the making of the window by Janet Christopherson.

Artist/maker notes

Lawrence Stanley Lee (1909 – 2011) trained at Kingston Art School and the Royal College of Art before the war. After the war he worked for Martin Travers, and it was Travers’ unexpected death in 1948, which led to Lee forming his own studio. A wide range of commissions followed, including his famous windows at Coventry Cathedral, with Keith New and Geoffrey Clarke. Lee was also a teacher both formally at the Royal College of Art, and in his studio to a succession of assistants. He was notable in acknowledging the contribution of his assistants by including their initials on windows, along with his own.

Sources:
The Lawrence Lee Project
Lawrence Lee on Wikipedia

Highlighted dates at this location

1970 (Go to date search)