Church of St Michael and Our Lady, Wragby, West Yorkshire

Address

Church of St Michael and Our Lady, Wragby, Wakefield WF4 1QE

Recommended by

Stephen Huws (10)

Highlight

Swiss glass throughout the church

Artist, maker and date

Swiss glass from the early sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century

Reason for highlighting

This church is full of hundreds if not thousands of these tiny scenes of Swiss glass, painted in painstakingly fine detail. 486 panels in 19 windows in total. Practically a museum of Swiss and North European stained glass from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The second largest private collection of Swiss glass panels in the world. Collected by Charles Winn in the nineteenth century and installed at Wragby. There was no attempt to arrange the panels in any way other than what would fit. A wide variety of ecclesiastical and secular subjects are included.

Simply walk around and admire the multitude, pick a window and explore how many different scenes there are. A joy to dive into. You could spend hours investigating everything, or focus on a single window to your heart’s content.

Other comments

The only non-Swiss glass in the church is in the east window. The six surviving panels are surrounded by Victorian panels created c.1835 by Thomas Ward (later of Ward & Hughes).

A short walk up the road from the church is the eighteenth-century Palladian house of Nostell Priory, well worth a visit. Built for the Winn family who furnished the church with its glass, it was given to the National Trust in the 1950s and can now be visited along with its impressive grounds. An impressive collection of Chippendale furniture.

Highlighted dates at this location

1514 - 1751 (Go to date search)