John Hayward, St Michael, east window (1970), Church of St Michael & All Angels, Micheldean, Gloucestershire.

Photo: Peter Hildebrand

John Hayward, detail of St Michael, east window (1970), Church of St Michael & All Angels, Micheldean, Gloucestershire.

Photo: Andrew Taylor

Church of St Michael & All Angels, Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire

Address

Church of St Michael & All Angels, 17 High Street, Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire GL17 0HU

Recommended by

Andrew Taylor FMGP (10)

Highlight

East window of the chancel

Artist, maker and date

John Hayward, 1970

Reason for highlighting

This is an impressive design spanning five lights, of St Michael defeating Satan. The window shows a rather laid back St Michael holding a massive flaming sword hovering above the defeated figure of Satan lying bound in chains, beneath him. There is some wonderful use of stain around St Michael.

John was a great glass painter, his style quite recognisable, and a virtuoso in all his techniques. He frequently used acid etching with flashed glass extensively, but very skilfully integrated into the designs, blending so well into the overall image with other techniques, one can easily miss this. And his use of silver stain in this window is a great example.

Other comments

The window was commissioned to replace glass lost in a storm of 1965. A part of that window, by J Dudley Forsyth, 1905, showing the Holy Spirit as a dove and two censing angels still survives in the tracery.

Another window by John Hayward, with the same theme of St Michael defeating Satan, yet a very different design, can be found in St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Kings Somborne, Hampshire. In that window there is some extraordinary staining as well.

The remaining windows are in a very different style and mainly from the second-half of the nineteenth century. Particularly striking are three windows from 1861-62 by Joseph Bell of Bristol. A detail of their west window is here.

Artist/maker notes

John Hayward (1929-2007) was not only one of the foremost stained glass artists of the post-war period but also a designer of church furniture and interiors. After St Martin’s School of Art he turned down a place the Royal College of Art to join Faithcraft, designing church furniture and arranging whole interiors where glass was one important element, before establishing his own studio.

Source: John Hayward’s obituary in The Church Times 7 August 2007