Church of St Mark, Salisbury, Wiltshire
Address
Church of St Mark, St Mark’s Avenue, Salisbury SP1 3DLRecommended by
Highlight
East windowArtist, maker and date
Designed by Hugh Powell and made with assistance from M Maybee and Lowndes & Drury, 1960Reason for highlighting
The window, at the east end, is impressive because of its size and its rich colour, which creates a striking jewel like effect. Christ stands on a rainbow accompanied by Elijah and Moses, all set within a modern interpretation of a mandorla. The structure of the stonework and tracery is unusual which adds to its uniqueness and it seems rather a ‘one off’.
Artist/maker notes
Hugh Barnaby Powell (1910-93) was a member of the family that owned James Powell and Sons, but apart from a brief period in his youth, he never worked for them, preferring to be independent. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art. For a brief period from 1952 he was in partnership with Carl Edwards. Later he used the facilities at Lowndes & Drury.
M Maybee worked in the stained glass department at James Powell & Sons, where he would have met Hugh Powell.
Lowndes & Drury was formed in 1897, by the artist Mary Lowndes (1857-1929) and the craftsman Alfred John Drury (1868-1940), with the aim of providing facilities for independent artists to design and make stained glass windows. They moved from cramped conditions in Chelsea to newly purpose-built premises, The Glass House, Fulham in 1906. The firm continued after the founders’ deaths, under Alfred Drury’s son, Victor, until he retired in the early 1970s. However, The Glass House premises continued in use under Carl Edwards and subsequently his daughter, Caroline Benyon, until she moved her studio to Hampton in 1992.
Sources:
The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XLI, 2017
Sussex Parish Churches – Architects and Artists P-Q
Benyon Stained Glass
Other comments
The church was consecrated in 1899, having been built as part of Bishop John Wordsworth’s campaign for the extension of Anglicanism in Salisbury at the end of the 19th century.