Sir Ninian Comper in Inverurie and Whiterashes

A couple of blogs ago (and back in October such has been my slow blogging), I mentioned that my coverage of the Sir Ninian Comper window in All Saints in Coventry was a little scant and that I would make it up to him. It also give me a chance to tie a few blogs together because during my visit to Jane Bayliss (in the last post), she was telling me that as well as making new windows she is also involved in the restoration and repair of old windows, and pointed me towards All Saints' Church in the village of Whiterashes near by where they had been involved in the restoration of the Ninian Comper windows there.

Unfortunately All Saints' Church was closed so I thought I would get my stained glass fix from St Mary's in Inverurie. Turns out that they have a window by Sir Ninian too. It features St Margaret of Scotland (that's her coat of arms above her in the window). I think the man in the window may be King David the first, her son, (also taken to be a saint) but I'm not sure.

The figurehead on Queen Margaret's ship looks rather pleased with himself.

The strawberry plant that is Sir Ninian's signature in most of his windows.

While I was in the church, I was chatting to a chap who turned out to be the priest of that church and also of All Saints' in Whiterashes which I had found locked earlier. Kind fellow lent me his key, so back I went, as much bolstered by the trusting act as getting to see the windows.

All the windows in All Saints' are by Ninian Comper and were installed between 1898 and 1919. Some do not have strawberries and I imagine they predate his using the signature.

This window is The Thanksgiving Window from the First World War. Whiterashes, quite remarkably, lost nobody in the war but amongst the injured was local laird, Quentin Irvine and his brother Alexander. Their mother donated this window, featuring St Michael, to the church and the three holly leaves in the window are part of the family coat of arms.

 St Bartholomew and St Nathanael (now as far as I can see, Bartholomew was Nathanael - says so here)

St Christina  with arrows and the millstone which was hung round the neck to try and drown her (it floated) and St Mary, sister of Lazarus, who, it seems, was also Mary Magdalene.

The chap with the sword here is St Quentin and the other fellow is James the Great who has a scallop shell on his staff to indicate he is a pilgrim.

St Hugh of Lincoln with his companion swan and St Francis of Assisi

Not sure I like the glint on St Hugh's swan's eye.

 A delightful little detail of the medal round St Hugh's neck.

The Great East Window, features the Virgin Mary with John the Baptist on her right and John the Evangelist on her left. John the Evangelist here holds a chalice with a viper in it, his symbol. I noticed that window at the beginning of the blog also has a chalice with a viper in it at the top - could it be that it is St John appearing in that window too and not St David.
 

It's not a window but for completeness I should mention that the reredos (the screen behind an alter) here is also designed by Sir Ninian. 

The figures on it photographed much better with the flash on.

Sir Ninian makes a couple of appearances in my other blog when I saw a window by him last year in Hardraw and the year before in Cromarty.

The Great West and East Windows of Holy Trinity, Coventry

On the night of 14th of December 1940 Conventry was bombed by the German air force. The ferocity of the bombing was well beyond what was expected and much of the centre of the city was destroyed, including most famously the cathedral. One church near the cathedral, which got of quite lightly that night, was The Holy Trinity. It didn't get away completely unscaved, it lost it's Great East and West windows. The current East and West windows date from the 1950s.

When I passed by a couple of months ago, there was a service on but you can see from the outside that there's something special about the Great West window, so I went away and had a cup of tea and something to eat and returned later. I was not wrong, the window is a cracker, it was designed by Hugh Easton and was dedicated in 1955.

This board tells you who all the personalities in the window are.

At the other end of the church, the Great East Window perhaps doesn't leap out at you in the same way that the West does. In a more traditional style, it is neither the less a superb window. I can't find an exact year of manufacture or dedication but it was sometime in the 1950s. It has come to be known as the Brides' Window since it was paid for with contributions from married couples in the 1940s and 1950s. It is by Ninian Comper. I fear I have not really done Sir Ninian's window much justice here, I only have a few decent pictures, but I have since seen some more windows by him and will make it up in a few blogs time.

You will notice that Sir Ninian and Hugh Easton both portray Christ as blond and beardless. Not what we normally see - was this requested by the church perhaps?