Easternmost south window of south aisle (c.1334), Church of St Wilfrid, Grappenhall, Cheshire. | Photo: © CVMA/Gordon Plumb
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Easternmost south window of south aisle (c.1334), Church of St Wilfrid, Grappenhall, Cheshire.
Photo: © CVMA/Gordon Plumb
Detail of easternmost south window of south aisle (c.1334), Church of St Wilfrid, Grappenhall, Cheshire. | Photo: Penny Hebgin-Barnes
Zoom
Detail of easternmost south window of south aisle (c.1334), Church of St Wilfrid, Grappenhall, Cheshire.
Photo: Penny Hebgin-Barnes

Church of St Wilfrid, Grappenhall, Cheshire

Address
Church of St Wilfrid, Church Lane, Grappenhall, Cheshire, WA4 3EP
Recommended by
Penny Hebgin-Barnes (10)
Highlight
Easternmost south window of south aisle
Artist, maker and date
Medieval workshop probably based in Chester, c.1334
Reason for highlighting

Eight figures of saints: John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene & six apostles survive from the glazing of a chantry founded in 1334. Some hold their emblems, including St Bartholomew who carries a flaying knife and his own skin.

This glazing with its rich colouration and decorative patterns is typical of the style exemplified by the west window of the nave of York Minster of c.1338-9. Variants like this produced by regional workshops survive in churches across northern England.

Other comments

In 1572 the kneeling donors Sir William Boydell and his wife Nicola, identified by an inscription and by the Boydell shield of a gold cross patonce on a green field, were recorded in the window. Although this glazing is lost, evidence of Boydell patronage survives in the form of the alternating gold crosses patonce and green rectangles used to border one of the lights.

The surviving glass has been rearranged and the figures truncated. This probably occurred during its removal in or before 1879 from its former position in the east window of the south aisle, which was subsequently glazed by Mayer & Co. of Munich & London.

A lightbox at the west end of the nave contains the incomplete figure of a young Virgin Mary dating from c.1500 produced by the workshop responsible for the St Helen window at Ashton-under-Lyne (see entry).

Sources:
‘Discovering the Grappenhall Workshop’, Vidimus no. 46 (December 2010)
P. Hebgin-Barnes, The Medieval Stained Glass of Cheshire, Oxford, 2010, pp. 114-19.
M. H. Ridgway, ‘Grappenhall, Cheshire, Fourteenth Century Glass’, JBSMGP, x/4, 1950–51, pp. 198–204.

Artist/maker notes

The output of this workshop survives at several other sites in Cheshire: St Michael, Shotwick; St Alban’s, Tattenhall; St James and St Paul’s, Marton; St Mary’s, Nantwich; St Chad’s, Over; St Boniface, Bunbury; St Wilfrid, Mobberley; and St Peter’s, Prestbury, as well as at St Mary’s, Treuddyn (Flintshire) & St John’s, Keele (Staffs).

Highlighted dates at this location
1334 (Go to date search)
All artists mentioned at this location