Decorative Arts: Glass, Textiles and Metalwork

Windows

The Pugin restoration saw the replacement of all the stone tracery and glass in all the windows. A number of the stained-glass windows were commissioned by Pugin. The main windows are as follows:

The east window is by William Wailes in 1845. It shows two rows of apostles, with St Mary and Jesus Christ as the central figures of the upper and lower rows, respectively.

The west (tower) window is by William Wailes. It shows an Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), IHS monograph and the symbols of the four evangelists (angel with a text for St Matthew, winged bull with a text for St Luke, a lion for St Mark and an eagle for St John).

The most north-westerly window of the north aisle is by Wailes. It shows St Stephen wearing the dalmatic robes of a deacon, holding stones (he was stoned to death) and St Philip in a dalmatic, holding a book.

The east window of the north aisle is by Hardman in 1848. It is a Nativity scene with Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a stable, with angels.

The west window of the south aisle in the baptistry chapel, is by Wailes. It is a memorial window to Clement Henry, son of the Rev Alford and his wife Fanny, who was baptised in 1844 and died the following year. The window shows St Clement with the inscription ‘Sanctus Clemens/Memento Henricum Alford/Sibi Vindicavit Christ’ [Saint Clement/Remember {Clement} Henry Alford/Christ claimed for himself] and a figure of St John the Baptist with ‘Sanctus Johannes Baptist. Baptizatum intemeratum/Anno salutis MDCCCXLIV’ [St John the Baptist. Baptised undefiled/In the year of salvation 1844.] Clement, and his older brother Ambrose who died in 1850, are buried just outside the west wall of the baptistry chapel.

The window at the East end of the South Aisle was commissioned in 1853 to commemorate the ministry of Rev Alford, as he left for a new post in London. It shows the Ascension of Christ with the apostles looking on, with angels in the lights above. It was made by John Hardman Powell.

A window in the south aisle is a First World War memorial window, made in the early 1920s by Alexander Gascoyne of Nottingham.

In the centuries before 1800, the windows of the church were glazed with a variety of designs. We know that in the 1790s there remained a small piece of medieval glass on which was inscribed ‘orate pro anima johannis dounham, abbatis de beaucheffe’ [Pray for the soul of John Downham, abbot of Beauchief] in gothic script. Downham was Abbot from 1458 but deposed in 1462 and retired to Wymeswold. There was also armorial glass in the east and other windows, showing the coats of arms of lords of Wymeswold manors and their relations by marriage.

William Burton’s Description of Leicester Shire of 1622 describes the glass of Wymeswold Church. None survives today. He described the heraldry of the glass as follows (this is for the heraldry specialist):

In the East window of the chancel:

Chaworth: Azure, 2 chevrons, or. Gules, billets, a fess, double dansey, or.

Burely: Argent and gules, 3 martlets, sable. Argent, 2 lions passant, gules.

In the South window of the chancel:

Willoughby: Or, upon 2 bars, gules, 3 water buckets, Argent, in pale.

Leeke: Argent, upon a faultier, ingrained, sable, 9 annulets, or.

In a North window of the church:

Chaworth: Azure, 2 chevrons, or. Argent, 2 lions passant, gules.

Nevill: Gules, crusuly fitchee, 3 Leopards heads jessant, 3 fleur de lys, Argent.

In a North window of the church:

Wastneis: Sable, a lion rampant, Argent, coloured gules.

Frescheville: Azure, 6 scallops, Argent. Argent 3 Bars Azure.

Azure upon a fess, ermine, between 10 Cinquefoils. Quarterly Argent.

Hameline: Gules, a Lion-rampant, ermine, coronet, or.

Silver and Decorative Metalwork

Wymeswold communion vessels
(in Charnwood Museum)

Communion Vessels: Wymeswold possesses three pieces of silver plate. The oldest, the donor of which is unknown, is a late medieval cup refashioned as a post-Reformation chalice. On the evidence of the London hallmark, it dates from about 1512. Until its valuation in the 1980s, it was used to celebrate communion in the church. It is currently on display at Charnwood Museum in Loughborough.

In 1705 Katharine, widow of Judge William Leake, gave two pieces of silver, a flagon and paten. The Parish Registers recorded that:

Dame Katherine Yorke, Relict first of William Leeke Esqre, Serjeant at Law, and then of Sr. William Yorke of Lessingham in the County of Lincoln Knt. did, upon the twenty sixth day of May, [Whitsun Eve] in ye year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Five, give to the use of ye Community of ye Parish Church of Wymeswold a Silver Flagon & a Silver Salver inscribed ‘Soli Deo Honor et Gloria.’ [To God alone be honour and glory].

This entry was signed by the vicar, Edward Moises, and the two churchwardens, Thomas Turner and William Burrows.
In 1954, a paten and chalice were given by Mr and Mrs Shipley, to commemorate Mrs Shipley’s association with the church prior to her wedding, which took place at this time in Wymeswold church.

During the Second World War, the three historic pieces of silver plate were placed in a bank, to keep them safe from air raids. Then, in 1949, the rural dean advocated that the communion vessels should be kept within the church, and a steel safe was purchased for this purpose. In 1955, the medieval chalice was exhibited at Christie’s in London, in connection with an exhibition organised by the Historic Churches Trust. It was insured by the organisers to the value of £5,000.

In 1990, the vicar proposed selling the chalice to pay for urgent repairs to the church roof. To prevent this from happening, the inhabitants of the village formed the Wymeswold Church Appeal Fund (WCFA) to raise money for the repairs. It is still going strong and is a great support to the church.

Lighting and candlesticks: When the Rev Alford came to Wymeswold in 1835, the church was lit by tallow dips or tapers on sticks which were inserted in holes bored into the top of the pews. Pugin designed a new lighting scheme for the church, with metalwork corona lights for the nave with Biblical texts in blue lettering that refer to light: ‘Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works’ (Matthew 5.18), and ‘O send out thy light and thy truth that they may lead me’ (Psalm 43.3). Hardman of Birmingham also provided Pugin-designed candle sconces for the nave pillars and candlesticks for the altars. The fourteen sconces were sponsored by a private benefactor at a cost of eight shillings each, totalling £12 12s. 0d.

Electric lighting provided by a dynamo in an engine shed in the churchyard, was installed in 1927. Less than ten years later, in 1935, the church was attached to mains electric supply and the rewiring to accommodate the new voltage cost of around £60. The dynamo was eventually sold for £10.

Probably around the time electric lighting was first installed in the late 1920s, most of the sconces were removed. Three remaining sconces, in poor condition, were removed in the 1950s, during restorations under the Rev L. Jackson. They were stored in the boiler house, but rescued and refurbished in 1995-6, by Isobel Foster. They have been reinstalled on the nave columns in the church.

Details on the sconces and their refurbishment can be found here: https://www.hoap.co.uk/who/who17.htm

Flags, Banners and Textiles

Military Colours: In the north aisle hangs a banner with the colours of the Royal Air Force 504 (County Nottingham) Squadron which was based at Wymeswold airfield from 1949 to 1957. The banner shows their badge and motto, ‘Vindicat in Ventis’, and commemorates their participation in the Battle of Britain 1940, France and the Low Countries 1940, Home Defence 1940–2, Atlantic 1941–2, Arnhem, Fortress Europe 1942–4, Normandy 1944 and France and Germany 1940–5. An eagle surmounts a flagstaff.

British Legion Standards: There are two standards, one for the men, and one for the women. One of the standards was dedicated in July 1939.

Mothers’ Union Banner: This banner was a gift by a Mrs Hodson in memory of her mother, ‘a faithful member of the church.’ It was dedicated on Mothering Sunday 1949.

Kneelers: The hassocks were designed and stitched by at least two teams of mainly women, over several decades. They are of considerably different qualities.

In the chancel, the kneelers at the altar rail are high quality at 25 stitches to the inch, with what appear to be designs made specially for St Mary’s. They were made in the 1960s and the name of the leader, Miss Evans, and her team are on an information sheet near them. The kneelers at the altar rail were included in a book about kneelers by Marie Worsley, Embroidered Church Kneelers (1967).

In the choir area there is another set of beautifully designed kneelers, made with non-commercial designs. They are embroidered with a variety of different stitches.

In the nave, the kneelers are mostly made from kits purchased from Jacksons of Hebden Bridge and were donated by individual parishioners around 2003. They are predominantly embroidered with cross stitch. Josie James has made several of them for members of her family.

The kneelers are a part of church history but are going out of use as the congregation do very little kneeling now. Their contribution is a significant part of the folk-art history of the church.

There are white altar covers on the high altar, with whitework or crochet borders.

Images: assorted kneelers.

Bibles and Books

As part of Pugin’s restoration of the interior of the church, a new wooden lectern was provided and a Bible was bound in oak and brass. The Bible decoration is based on a pattern seen by Pugin on a Bible in the cathedral at Mainz, Germany.