The Thames and some Medieval French

This morning's very muddy walk was along the Thames path upstream from Henley to Shiplake and back. We stopped at St Peter's & St Paul's Church to view the stained glass windows. There are eleven late 19th/early 20th century windows by, I think, Horwood of Frome, all in very muted pale colours. Quite wonderful work. But, the real draw here is the medieval 15th century French glass in five windows. This comes from the  Benedictine monastery of Saint-Bertin in Saint Omer. The monastery was destroyed in the French Revolution and fragments of glass from its windows were collected in the 1820s and 30s by a visiting churchman from Henley. These were pieced together to create new windows in the church at Shiplake. They include depictions of saints, Christian symbols, abstract fragments and a series of portraits including this rather unflattering one with 15th century comb-over.

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.