It was inevitable that, at some point, Shrewsbury would organise its own stained-glass festival. From the magnificent medieval east window at St Mary’s (not to mention the church’s fascinating Flemish glass) to the Morris & Co work at Castlefields and Meole, the David Evans work at Frankwell, the heraldry windows at the Abbey, and the eighteenth century painted glass at St Alkmund’s, the town has more than its fair share of attractions.

And, for many visitors, a special draw is Shrewsbury Cathedral, with its recently-restored Hardman & Co east window, and – of course – the seven works by Margaret Agnes Rope.

So, in the August of 2023, the first Shrewsbury Stained-Glass Festival, complete with workshops at St Mary’s and talks and tours around the town, including round the cathedral, and all co-ordinated by Rachael Abbiss, took place.

Cathedral tour

Observant visitors who came for the Shrewsbury Cathedral tours (see pic below) quickly noticed that the building (opened 1856) is remarkable in that it provides a near-perfect example of that significant break in history when the Victorian world was rejected in favour of the modem. The Great East Window (Hardman, 1856) faces the Great West Window (Rope, 1910) – the contrast could not be more marked, and the situation is repeated around the building. The seven Rope windows are completely different to the similar number of Hardman windows, most of which were designed by JA Pippet.
(Curiously, there is also one ‘cuckoo in the nest’, an imported Bavarian window, about which little is known).

From this we can gather that the manager of the cathedral in the years between 1910 and 1940, Canon (later Bishop) Moriarty, wanted to put the building on the map, by updating it into something both modern and avant-garde. By commissioning Marga seven times, he did just that.
In fact, he also ruthlessly got rid of any original Victorian work that he presumably deemed below par.

Talks

Mark Stewart, who led the tours of the cathedral, said he was astonished at how many people came: “We had over a hundred people in total attending, some of whom came a very long way indeed. What was also heartening was the level of interest, which was much greater than we expected.”

But Mr Stewart added that it was a two-way process. Much was learnt from visitors, some of whom were very expert themselves, and who brought their own stories: “One lady showed us a very important and rare In Memoriam card from the 1930s; one researcher informed us of something we didn’t know, that the ‘Bishops Window’ was by another famous artist; and another lady told us of the local tradition that a depiction of Jerusalem in one window actually features a structure from Shrewsbury Railway Station in disguise! It all made for fascinating moments.”
The window with the suspected railway bridge (see pic right) is Marga’s Visitation window – and, indeed, Marga was known for incorporating local elements into her pieces… so the suggestion could well be true.

Trena Cox

The revelation about the Bishops Window was a particular surprise. It had not been realised up to this point that the window, to be found in the cathedral War-Memorial Chapel, is by Trena Cox (even though it is clearly signed!). Cox was born in 1895, a decade after Marga, though the window in question was not made until 1960; she worked mostly in Chester, sixty miles away.
It’s not a particularly outstanding piece, being basically an armorial window illustrating the arms of the various bishops of the diocese, but it has the colour & vibrancy of her work.
Almost nothing is known about how the window was commissioned or why. A Trena Cox research project is looking into the question, but if you have any light to shed on the subject, we’d love to hear from you about it, or indeed about any other aspect of the cathedral’s art-works and history.

Guides

To cope with demand, there has been a reprint of Roger Hall’s ‘Letting In The Light’, the publication which tells in detail the stories and ‘hidden’ messages that are to be found in the cathedral’s Rope windows. Meant literally as a guide, the visitor is best walking from window to window with the booklet in hand. The booklets are available in the cathedral’s shop.
The cathedral is open to visitors most days – though it’s worth making contact to check times & dates before making any long journey.

So….

… will there be another festival next year?
It seems to be a possibility – watch this space!

And, if you missed this year’s event, here’s the flyer for it (as a pdf). As you can see…. it was marvellous!
See a pdf of the flyer: stained-glass-festival-2023 publicity leaflet (to download)

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