|
Newtown Road Cemetery - The Anglican Chapel Window
Henry Godwin was born in Bath in 1811 and came to Newbury in 1837. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His books include ‘Worthies and Celebrities connected with Newbury and Neighbourhood’ and ‘The English Archaeologists Handbook’. He was co-founder of the Newbury District Field Club and was central to the setting up Newbury Cemetery Company in 1847.
The window was commissioned by Martha Godwin as a memorial to her husband Henry Godwin and installed just 8 months after his death in 1874. She apparently broke tradition as Henry had been closely involved with the society for installing stained glass windows in St. Nicholas Church which had invariably chosen windows by the Birmingham based company Hardman.
The Newbury Weekly News 25th March 1875 reported: Memorial window. The painted window, which is a memorial to the late Henry Godwin Esq, has been placed in the Lower Cemetery Chapel. The subject is The Resurrection which has been treated with great beauty and effect. Messers Heaton Butler and Bayne were the artists employed.
This was a fortuitous choice as not only is the window rather more striking than those in St Nicholas church but at the time there was some experimentation with high borax glass fluxes resulting in painted glass that soon lost its detail. Hardman’s studio was notorious for this problem. Heaton had researched glass paints and developed his own ‘indestructible colours’ such that they had at their disposal a palette of more than 130 different colours. These included a variety of new soft and gentle colours so that at this time Victorian glass was no longer a nostalgic imitation of the middle ages when only about 10 colours were available.
With the Anglo-Catholic renaissance during the reign of Queen Victoria the artistic use of stained glass was revived and the number of Studios increased dramatically.
Heaton Butler and Bayne (HBB) was founded by Clement Heaton (1824-82) and James Butler (1830 – 1913) in 1855. They were joined by Robert Turnhill Bayne (1837-1915) in 1862 and in the same year they won first prize at an international exhibition in Kensington. Their work was also displayed at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867 and at Philadelphia where they won a prize in 1876. Many thousands of windows can be attributed to them and in their Victorian heyday they employed large numbers of craftsmen at their extensive studios in King Street Covent Garden.
The window is unusual for 1874 and seems unlike any other extant for the period. There is no documentary evidence detailing the designer of the window and it is likely that the window was in part ‘assembled’ from established designs by a number of artists which were repeated. Possibly this is true for the two top right figures and the face of Christ. By 1874 Bayne was no longer producing window designs but it is very likely that the Roman soldier faces are by his hand. There is a strong similarity to known work by him.
In addition, the detail which has gone into the folds and design of the Work by Bayne at Denton, Norfolk white/yellow robes (See Photo) seems attributable to his hand.
In 1862 HBB achieved something of a coup when they poached from Clayton and Bell (a well-known stained glass manufacturer) such a ‘designer of genius’ as Bayne. He became a partner in HBB specialising in the design of work for ecclesiastical authorities. He was trained by Clayton and his early influences were stained glass windows of the 14th century as well as the early watercolours painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Initially the work of Bayne was influenced by the gothic revival style but strong influences came from William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Maddox Brown and the Pre- Raphaelite movement (PRB) generally.
Robert Turnhill Bayne (see Photo)
Between 1864 and 1878 HBB commissioned Henry Holliday who was within the PRB circle to design a number of windows for them and all these influences can be clearly seen in the later work of Bayne particularly with regard to figures and the use of colour.
According to Martin Harrison
‘Bayne took Claytons already excellent figure design a stage closer to pre- Raphaelitism and became one of the finest artists involved in High Victorian stained glass’
Sources
Newbury Weekly News.
Correspondence with Robert Bayne.
The Condition Report on the Stained Glass Newtown Cemetery Chapel by Paul San Casciani Stained Glass Consultants for Newbury Corporation.
English Heritage - notes on HBB
HBB: Un Siecle d’Art du Vitrail
David Clow FONRC April 2014
Sources: |
