Holy Trinity Church, Northwood, London (Middlesex)
Address
Holy Trinity Church, Gateway Close, Northwood HA6 2RPRecommended by
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St Hugh of LincolnArtist, maker and date
Alfred Fisher and James Powell & Sons, 1972Reason for highlighting
One of a pair of small windows designed by Alfred Fisher and made at the Whitefriars Studio/James Powell & Sons. It followed on from a scholarship tour undertaken to studios in France and the Low Countries in 1959/60 which had a big influence on his designs and this window was one of the first tentative examples of his change in style. Among other changes, it involved a break from the almost Victorian tight painting style then practised by Whitefriars to a more fluid approach combined with amalgamating subject matter with background rather than being completely separate from it.
Artist/maker notes
Alfred Fisher MBE FMGP FRSA (b.1933) trained at Liverpool Arts College before joining James Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) Ltd, where he developed his own distinctive style. In 1973 he co-founded Chapel Studios and worked there until retiring, mixing new work with important conservation projects. Now retired, his legacy of work can be found across the country, including Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Chequers and the Guildhall.
Source: Alfred Fisher website
James Powell & Sons was formed when James Powell purchased Whitefriars Glass, an old established glass works, in 1834. His sons developed the business to be one of the major firms of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Especially notable is their work with Charles Winston in the 1840s and 1850s to improve the quality of glass available, and the many fine designers with whom they worked. The company’s innovations extended beyond stained glass, with the company developing a formidable reputation in a number of fields, including tableware glass, where Whitefriars Glass remains highly collectable. The stained glass department finally closed in 1973, and the company in 1980.
Sources:
James Powell & Sons, Whitefriars by Jacqueline Banerjee, PhD, Associate Editor, The Victorian Web
Victorian & Edwardian Stained Glass by Marta Galicki (Historic England, reprinted by Morris & Juliet Venables, 2001)