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Serving God in the heart of our community since 1881

St Andrew's Church, Taunton

 www.standrewstaunton.org.uk
 

 

Click here for a larger picture

Stained glass in St. Andrew's:

The Glory of God in Glass

 

This section of our tour has been based largely upon the booklet "The Stained Glass of St. Andrew's Church" by Mary Balmforth (Sacristan 1974 - 1994), with an illustration by Anne Hickox. Additional material has been collected by the Webmaster, Adrian Smith who also took all the photographs.

Let us have a closer look at some of the stained glass windows in church, starting with the East Window.

Click each small picture to see a larger image.

 At the top we see, enclosed in a circle, Our Lord in glory.  The heads of an eagle, an ox, a lion and a man represent the four writers of the Gospels.  Underneath in Latin, are the words from the Te Deum: 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.'

Below are shown the traditional nine orders of angels;

below them, Moses, holding the Ten Commandments, Elijah with a raven, David with a crown and harp, and Nehemiah holding a cup. The words underneath mean: 'the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, praise Thee.'

After the Prophets are some New Testament figures: John the Baptist - saying 'Behold the Lamb of God', SS Jude, James the Less, Philip and Bartholomew. The club and knife are the instruments of their martyrdom.

The central panel of the middle row depicts St. Peter with his key, The Blessed Virgin, holding a lily, and St. Andrew with his cross. In the background are St. John with a cup and serpent, the 'deadly thing which did not hurt him', and St. James the Great, holding a pilgrims staff, because his shrine was a place of pilgrimage.

To the right are St. Matthias, St. Simon, St. Barnabas and St. Paul. In the background are St. Matthew and St. Thomas. Underneath are the words 'The Glorious Company of the Apostles praise Thee'.

Further right are the four traditional teachers of the Church, SS Jerome, Chrysostom and Athanasius (whose prayer and creed are in the Prayer Book) and Augustine. The words beneath mean 'The Holy Church throughout the world'.

The bottom row, on the left, shows Perpetua and her slave Felicitas, who were martyred together in the arena, St. Etheldreda, St. Agnes and St. Edith: in front of them, two of the Holy Innocents.

Then St. Monica, St. Cecilia, who holds an organ as she is the patron saint of musicians, St. Catherine with the spiked wheel on which she was tortured, St. Agatha and St. Mary Magdalene with her precious ointment.

The central panel shows a priest celebrating the Eucharist, and the Latin words mean: 'And we worship Thy Name, ever world without end'.

The right hand panels represent St. Sebastian, St. Alban (a Roman soldier, who was the first British martyr), St. Stephen, Joseph of Arimathea, Aldhem (a Bishop of Sherborne), St. George, St. Boniface (a British missionary bishop of Germany) and kneeling in front are St. Pancras (a boy martyr) and St. Giles.

 

Across the bottom is the Latin inscription - 'The noble army of martyrs praise Thee'.

 

Altogether the window represents how at the Eucharist, 'with Angels and Archangels and all the company of Heaven, we proclaim Your great and glorious Name'.

 

*

 

Additional information obtained by the webmaster.

 

The glorious East window was the work of Messrs. Lavers and Westlake, of Endell Street, London, and is a very beautiful example of good 19th century glass.

 

This stained-glass manufacturers was started in 1855 by Lavers and his colleagues after breaking away from an old-established firm. Henry Stacy Marks and Henry Holiday contributed designs, although the firm's reputation mainly sprang from the simple Pre-Raphaelite designs produced by Westlake after he joined the firm in 1858. The firm closed at the time of Westlake's death in 1921.

 

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Quick Links to individual windows
Page 2: The Virgin Mary (High Altar)
Page 3: The Virgin Mary (Lady Chapel)
Page 4: The Perfect Sacrifice (Lady Chapel)
Page 5: Memorial to Mercy (Lady Chapel)
Page 6: Pictures of Christ B.C. (South Aisle)
Page 7: Creator and Carpenter (South Aisle)
Page 8: Timbrel and Harp (South Aisle)
Page 9: The Windows that Speak (West Window)
Page 10: The Font Window
Page 11: The North Aisle
Page 12: The Railway Window

 

Page updated 11/11/2007