Bill's Lecture - Brierley Hill

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Introduction

Introduction

Bill's Lecture

Brierley Hill

Dudley

Dudley Wood

Cradley Heath

Cradley

Wollescote

Stourbridge

Yardley

Stourton

Kinver

Romsley

Arley

Additional Material

Postscript

Worcester

Bethesda, Cradley

Oldswinford

Great Witley

Summary

This is the church at Bank Street, Brierley Hill, we're going quite a tour up to Dudley now, and it was full of stained glass windows and they were going to demolish it. And the pastor called me in to see, what about all the glass. I said, well what are you going to do. It can be taken out and stored ready to put in the new church. He said it isn't you know, what’s the point in building a new church and have all the old windows back in, he said, it’s just like the old church. It was hard lines on people who gathered their money together, you know, in memory of their relatives. To think that they’ve all got to be about anyone’s grandmother. Anyhow, I didn't get the chance, I was on holiday at the time they wanted them all whipped out quickly, what became of them we don't know. One or two of them were retained, in fact this one which is over their chancery, chancel or whatever you call it, a very fine window that, that was kept and its retained and is still in the present church.

The new church in 2016

Now every window in that church, there were 36 of them, all stained glass, and it seemed to me such a shame. In fact there was a window of mine, I did a window, about 1936, these were Victorian, high up, on the side of the window, on the side of the chancel wall, but ... there's another pot boiler when I showed it him like that he said, its just like the Pink Paraffin man, sort of light the world, it was an advert or something in the paper, not a very fine example, I wouldn't think, of stained glass. That was my window, and I was surprised when I saw it, I said well did I do that? I don't think I could do it today, I'm not as steady as I was when I was a younger man. (no pictures of these windows are available)
 
Anyhow, these I believe have been retained for the Black Country Museum, they did save those, that is John Wesley, and this one is Charles Wesley and also there is a figure there of Robert Rakes, the founder of the Sunday School movement. Very interesting historical pictures, really.
 
And this was a beautiful masterpiece and what became of that I don't know, I've looked for it but got nowhere. (This window can now be seen in the Stained Glass Museum which is located in Ely Cathedral)

It's a carbon copy of the Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, you know, Holman Hunt’s famous painting in the Birmingham Reference Library, one of the pre-Raphaelites. Too much carbon copy of that. Very, very beautifully done, too.