| Date | 20 June 2014 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
| Reference | VP-0099 |
| Volume | Views of the Past |
| Collection | Press Clippings |
Transcript
Church brightened by artistic windows
LAST week I wrote of the 150th anniversary of All Saints Church in Francis Road, and I was reminded of a second All Saints Church in Dedworth.
Windsorians still speak fondly of the old All Saints Church at the junction of Dedworth Road and Clewer Hill Road.
At first glance, it would appear unlikely that Dedworth would possess a series of national treasures.
However, these come in the form of beautiful stained glass windows, which have been re-installed in a new church on the site of the original — rebuilt in 1970.
The original All Saints Church was built as a memorial to Mary Sophie Taylor by her husband Henry and her children.
The first stone was laid in October 1862, and it was built to the designs of George Frederick Bodley.
The firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co supplied the stained glass for the windows of Bodley’s original church between 1863 and 1867.
Morris’s firm also employed other pre-Raphaelite such as Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Edward Burne Jones and Ford Maddox Brown, the main exponents of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The east window of the original church consisted of three stained glass panels which formed a triptych.
The centrepiece was Rosetti’s Crucifixion with Burne Jones’ Nativity on the Left and Morris’ Resurrection on the right.
The south aisle of the church had work by Burne Jones, which included two windows executed in 1863 depicting the Annunciation.
Also in the south aisle were works by Ford Maddox Brown (St Anne) and (St Catherine) by William Morris.
The later windows were installed by Burne Jones in the North Aisle in 1881, 1887 and 1888 and included windows depicting St Elizabeth, St George and St John.
By 1970 All Saints Church was starting to fall into decay and after a lot of deliberation it was decided to rebuild the church and display the stained glass in the new building.
It was found that the two windows depicting the annunciation would not fit in the new building and were given to Royal Holloway College for their new centre for Victorian Art.
The stained glass from the east window was placed in the foyer of the new church and ten panels were mounted in light box which could be viewed partially from the interior and some from the outside.
ART OF GLASS: All Saints Church, Dedworth and its stained glass windows, right.
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