Church of St Mary and All Saints, Whalley, Lancashire
Address
Church of St Mary and All Saints Church, Church Lane, Whalley, Lancashire, BB7 9SYRecommended by
Highlight
East window of the North chapelArtist, maker and date
Trena Cox, 1928Reason for highlighting
This glowing three-light window is a very good example of Cox’s work, showing three figures against detailed backgrounds. St George is at the centre in armour with a sword, King Arthur to the left, with a haunting scene of the final journey to Avalon below. St Nicholas stands on the other side, wearing episcopal robes and gloves, with a scene of monks below. Cox’s rich colours, with ornamented borders and the use of pattern, including lettering, is strikingly good. This is also a window to contemplate, with a scene of Camelot, the ship saved in a storm through the intervention of St Nicholas, a fire-breathing dragon at St George’s shoulder, small birds, flowers and other details, such as St Nicholas’s rather wonderful red slippers. The letters ‘TMC’ placed discreetly above St George are Cox’s initials.
While it had become traditional to show St George in war memorial windows, the depiction of King Arthur and of the journey to Avalon is less commonly used. It may have been chosen to honour Arthur Green who died at the Somme in 1918 and is remembered with his parents in the window’s dedication.
Artist/maker notes
Trena Mary Cox (1895-1980) was brought up in Birkenhead and studied at the Laird School of Art there. She went on to live and work in Chester where she began her career in association with William Gamon & Co. She established a successful practice, adopting a distinctive style influenced by the work of Christopher Whall. Cox’s windows can be found in Chester Cathedral and in many other locations in the North West of England and beyond. She continued to work until 1972, by which time she was in her seventies.
Source: Trena Cox – Emergence of a Stained Glass Artist by Peter Jones on buildingconservation.com
Other comments
Whalley Parish Church has Anglo-Saxon origins and contains a treasure trove of furnishings, including other stained glass windows of note. These include examples from a number of leading figures in the nineteenth century revival in stained glass.
Earliest is the east window (1816), which is a rare example of the work of the work of Joseph Hale Miller, a key figure in the move away from enamel colours to the use of pot metal and lead.
Next is the east window of the Lady Chapel (1847), which was designed by A.W.N. Pugin, a pioneer in the Gothic revival, and made by Hardmans.
The adjacent south window of the Lady Chapel (1893) is by the famous firm of Morris & Co, to designs by Burne-Jones.
The twentieth century is represented further west in the south wall of the nave (1914) with a window by Christopher Whall, an example of the later Arts & Crafts tradition.
The most recent window is by Edward Woore in the north wall of the North Chapel (1936), adjacent to the Trena Cox window highlighted above.