Restoration appeal for cathedral’s four prized windows

IT is so easy to walk past Birmingham Cathedral without a glance, but it’s open every day and on the inside are surprises galore.

Chief among them, the breathtaking beauty of the stained glass windows by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, a pre-Raphaelite artist born locally on Bennetts Hill.

Installed between 1885 and 1897, Burne-Jones designed four windows for the cathedral and now they are the focus of a £900,000 restoration project called Divine Beauty.

A tour of the cathedral was recently conducted by its head of learning, Jane McArdle.

Seeing really is believing when it comes to understanding the quality of the windows’ workmanship by William Morris & Co, a company founded in his own name by another leading figure of the Arts & Crafts movement who had met BurneJones at Oxford University. Ms McArdle leads a tour most Mondays at 12.30pm and up to ten people can book in advance for free to listen to her stories at first hand – including how St Philip’s was built as a church and consecrated in October 1715 when Birmingham was still a town.

The statue outside the cathedral’s main entrance is of Charles Gore, who became the first Bishop of Birmingham

in 1905, but it’s on the inside where the windows come magically to life.

Now Birmingham Cathedral is actively looking for donations to help with the restoration of its four prized Burne-Jones’ windows.

Apart from individual donations, legacies and corporate help, another source of financial assistance will come from National Lottery Heritage Fund support to facilitate an application for a full National Lottery grant.

Ms McArdle said: “Stained with metal oxides in the process of making the glass, the windows are in a very poor state of cleanliness.

“Even though their colours are still quite amazing, they are covered in a thick layer of dirt so we need to carry out a full conservation project to have them properly cleaned.

“We also hope to be able to replace the grilles on the outside – which we need for protection – with something more sympathetic. Certain aspects of the windows need to be taken away to a studio to be conserved properly as well.”

The windows were removed during the Second World War and stored deep inside a Welsh slate mine for safety – which is just as well as the roof was hit by an incendiary bomb. Add more than 130 years of exposure to light and pollution and it soon becomes clear why the windows need to be restored – with the inevitable promise that once completed

The real jewel in the crown are the four Burne-Jones windows, thought to be some of the finest Victorian stained glass windows in the world Jane McArdle, pictured above

they will look better than ever.

The Ascension was installed in 1885, followed by the Nativity and Crucifixion two years later, earning Burne-Jones £200 per design.

At the western end of the church – and best seen during a September sunset – The Last Judgement was created as a memorial window to Bishop Bowlby in 1897.

“It shows people below in a mild panic at the end of time,” says Jane, “the impression in the middle is of a city in chaos with lots of buildings all at different angles to each other as if some kind of chaotic event has been happening.”

The cathedral was designed by Thomas Archer in Baroque style after he’d been on a Grand Tour of Europe.

Ms McArdle says: “But the real jewel in the crown are the four Burne-Jones’ windows, thought to be some of the finest Victorian stained glass windows in the world. They were made in the workshop of William Morris.

“With the Ascension window, if you look at the disciples on the ground, their faces are human and very recognisable. And then if you look up to the angels above, they all have this similar, ethereal quality – elongated figures with an amazing range of beautiful reds in the background. When Burne-Jones saw this window (in situ) he thought it was so successful he said, ‘Let’s do two further windows’.

“A member of the congregation, an heiress called Emma Villiers-Wilkes, paid for these, but she wasn’t satisfied just signing the cheque for the money, she wanted a strong say in the windows as well.

“She agreed the subject matter should be the Nativity and Crucifixion, but she didn’t want any cattle/ cows to be shown in the Nativity, so that’s why we’ve only got sheep in there, and she wanted no blood to be shown on the hands and feet of Jesus in the Crucifixion.

“If you look very carefully, part of Mary’s undergarments are of a William Morris design, so there’s a little bit of product placement there.

“Burne-Jones travelled to Italy to do sketches and he took a lot of his influence from early Italian art and then designed (the Crucifixion window) in a much more Victorian, emotional, impactful way.”