Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire

Address

Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Chad, The Close, Lichfield WS13 7LD

Theme

Anglican Cathedrals in England (43)

Comments by

Peter Hildebrand

Overview

The cathedral has lost most of its medieval glass with only a few fragments in St Michael’s Chapel. It was largely replaced in Victorian times by the work of the large commercial studios. They included numerous windows from the Kempe Studio. A particularly fine example is ‘The Tree of the Church’ window, 1895, in the south wall of the south transept. It was created by Kempe’s last leading artist, John William Lisle, who was trained by Charles Eamer Kempe and became his chief draughtsman in 1895, retaining the role until his death in 1927. This was his first major window, and one of the Studio’s finest.

However, the most important stained glass, which also arrived in the 19th century, is the set of 16th century panels from the Abbey of Herkenrode.

Highlight

Lady Chapel stained glass windows from the Abbey of Herkenrode

Artist, maker and date

Executed by unknown glaziers, between 1532 and 1539

Reason for highlighting

The Lady Chapel contains seven fine windows made in the 1530s for the Cistercian Abbey of Herkenrode, near the city of Hasselt, in present day Belgium, and brought to the cathedral in the first decade of the nineteenth-century. Two further windows, thought to originate from Antwerp, were restored and installed to complete the Lady Chapel glazing by C E Kempe in 1895.

The windows have recently been enhanced by an extensive conservation program, including the installation of new external protective glazing by Barley Studio. A report is available at Barley Studio – Lichfield. Remarkably they believe that the Herkenrode windows in Lichfield comprise more original 16th century stained glass than survives in present-day Belgium.

Highlighted dates at this location

1532-39 (Go to date search)