East window of the chancel (late 15th century), Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity, Tattershall, Lincolnshire. | Photo: Peter Hildebrand
Zoom
East window of the chancel (late 15th century), Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity, Tattershall, Lincolnshire.
Photo: Peter Hildebrand
Thomas Wodeshawe and Richard Twygge, 'Feeding the Hungry' (c.1482), east window of the chancel, Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity, Tattershall, Lincolnshire. | Photo: Peter Hildebrand
Zoom
Thomas Wodeshawe and Richard Twygge, 'Feeding the Hungry' (c.1482), east window of the chancel, Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity, Tattershall, Lincolnshire.
Photo: Peter Hildebrand

Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity, Tattershall, Lincolnshire

Address
Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity, Sleaford Rd, Tattershall, Lincolnshire, LN4 4LR
Recommended by
Penny Hebgin-Barnes (10)
Highlight
East window of the chancel
Artist, maker and date
Various workshops including those of Richard Twygge & Thomas Wodeshawe, Robert Power of Burton upon Trent, and either John Glasier of Stamford or John Wymondeswalde of Peterborough, all late 15th century
Reason for highlighting

The east window contains panels and fragments collected in 1804 from the body of the church. These include two panels depicting the sacraments of Confirmation and Baptism from a Seven Sacraments window of 1482; two panels depicting Clothing the Naked and Feeding the Hungry from a Works of Mercy window; a panel showing St Helen presenting the cross and nails to her son Emperor Constantine from a Holy Cross window of 1482; fragments of scenes from these and other lost windows; many figures of saints, angels and Virtues; Evangelist symbols; shields of Cromwell and St Catherine; and roundels depicting badges including roses, suns and Ralph Lord Cromwell’s treasurer’s purse with a punning spray of gromwell weed.

Other comments

The east window glazing was conserved and partly rearranged by Keith Barley in 1988-9.

Ralph Lord Cromwell (d.1456), Lord Treasurer of England, built Tattershall Castle and founded a college of priests. The present magnificent Perpendicular collegiate church was begun in 1466 by his executors, whose building accounts contain valuable information about the glazing. The original glazing of the chancel was removed in 1757 and installed by William Peckitt in St Martin’s Church and Burghley House in Stamford, where it can still be seen, and a small amount is in the chapel of Warwick Castle.

For another slightly later St Helen window see entry for Ashton-under-Lyne. For a 17th-century Works of Mercy window see entry for Messing.

Sources:
P. Hebgin-Barnes & G. Plumb, A History and Description of the Stained glass in Holy Trinity Church, Tattershall Lincs, 2014 (available in the church).
P. Hebgin-Barnes, The Medieval Stained Glass of the County of Lincolnshire, Oxford, 1996, pp. 304-31.
R. Marks, The Stained Glass of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity, Tattershall (Lincs.), New York/London, 1984.

Artist/maker notes

The Twygge and Wodeshawe workshop was active during the last quarter of the fifteenth century in the region of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire where its output survives at a number of sites, notably at Great Malvern Priory. For the workshop of either John Glasier or John Wymondeswalde see the entry for Browne’s Hospital, Stamford.

Highlighted dates at this location
1480s (Go to date search)
All artists mentioned at this location