Church of St Mary the Virgin, Frinton-on-Sea, Essex
Address
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Old Road, Frinton-on-Sea, Essex CO13 9DARecommended by
Highlight
East windowArtist, maker and date
Designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., c.1862Reason for highlighting
While there are many churches that have much larger collections of Morris glass than this small church, which is reputed to be the smallest medieval church in Essex, the attraction here is that it is possible to enjoy these early panels of Morris glass relatively close up.
The window has four rectangular panels which were not originally designed for this church, yet being early examples of the firm’s oeuvre (and in good condition) they look stunning in their present position. Three of the panels are copied at St Michael and All Angels, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, but being part of a much larger window binoculars would have to be used to look at them in detail.
Artist/maker notes
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) was born in Birmingham and studied at Exeter College, Oxford where he met William Morris, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship. Together they created hundreds of stained glass windows that collectively stand as one of the finest artistic achievements of their time. The stature of this formidable artist and designer was recognised after his death when he became the first artist to be given a Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey.
Sources:
Burne-Jones Special Issue, The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXV, 2011
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona McCarthy, Faber & Faber, 2011.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861-75) or the ‘Firm’, as it was colloquially referred to, was founded in 1861 by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Maddox Brown, Philip Webb, Peter Paul Marshall and Charles J Faulkner. The Firm started out with no lack of confidence. As Rossetti wrote in January 1862, ‘Our stained glass…may challenge any other firm to approach it.’
Sources:
The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona McCarthy, Faber & Faber, 2011.
William Morris: A Life for Our Time by Fiona MacCarthy (Faber & Faber, 1994)
Burne-Jones Special Issue, The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXV, 2011
Other comments
Visitors should note that this is the Old Parish Church. A new parish church, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, was built in the 1920s and is four minutes’ walk further up Old Road. It has an interesting collection of twentieth century glass.