Church of St. Mary, Bibury, Gloucestershire
Address
Church of St Mary, Church Road, Bibury, Gloucestershire, GL7 5NRRecommended by
Highlight
North chancel windowArtist, maker and date
Designed by Karl Parsons and made at Lowndes and Drury, 1927Reason for highlighting
This vivid single light shows how Karl Parsons’ work developed after visiting Chartres cathedral for the first time in the 1920s, in the rich blues and reds, and the full-frontal depiction of the Virgin. He said, ‘So far as my knowledge goes, this world cannot show anything made by men so amazingly beautiful’.
As always it shows Parsons’ sensitive rendition of children and his love of nature, here shown in the celestial passionflowers that surround the Virgin and Child and the anemones, representing Christ’s blood, that flower around Charity.
The window is dedicated to Rowland B and Ellen Cooper, d. 1910 and 1926 respectively. Cooper had lived at Bibury Court for 20 years. The little carriage at the bottom represents an interest of Cooper’s! There was some dissent to the window, with the Diocesan Advisory Committee saying the Virgin’s robes were too ‘restless’.
Artist/maker notes
Karl Bergemann Parsons (1884-1934) was born in Peckham, south London, and, like his friend Edward Woore, graduated in his craft from Christopher Whall’s studio, which he had joined directly from school. Having completed his apprenticeship he remained with Whall until setting up his own studio at The Glass House in 1908. During this time he was able to work with Whall on some of his most important commissions, including the windows of the Lady Chapel at Gloucester Cathedral, and also supplying some drawings for Whall’s book ‘Stained Glass Work’ (1905).
Parson’s time with Whall included attending Whall’s classes at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, where he himself would subsequently teach. He also taught at the Royal College of Art.
Parson’s style evolved noticeably from the mid-1920 following a visit to Chartres Cathedral and under the influence of his friend, Harry Clarke. His sometime pupil and later assistant, E Liddall Armitage commented some years later that “He was an extremely competent designer, an excellent draughtsman and a fine colourist.”
Sources:
Arts & Craft Stained Glass by Peter Cormack (Yale University Press, 2015)
Stained Glass – History, Technology and Practice by E Liddall Armitage (Leonard Hill (Books) Ltd, 1960)
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.
Source: The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XLI, 2017
Other comments
At Christmas 1992 the Royal Mail used a detail from the window for a first class stamp.
Also in the thirteenth century chancel window is the earliest medieval stained glass in Gloucestershire, a single light of stiff-leaf grisaille, with red and blue highlights.
There is another superb Karl Parsons window in the county, at Hempsted, near Gloucester, from 1924.