There is also a Second World War memorial made by Edgar Lemon of Bromsgrove
whom I knew as clever artist in my early days.
He also created the Hodgkiss
window which has several points of interest upon it. St Andrew glares out at
the other saint on the other side of the nave. He also appears in a boat
which seems to tell the story of the miraculous drought, except that there
are only two disciples in the boat and one of these is looking more like
Noah flying his pigeons. It could not be the story of Christ walking on the
waters and calming the sea because he stands in the distance, a very
diminutive figure firmly on a rock.
Beneath the well known passages of ‘Their sound is gone unto all lands’ is a
fair representation of Worcester Cathedral and ‘and their words to the end of
the world’ is ‘The Lye’. The Lye – notice the local vernacular which seems
to completes the passage. Is the artist trying to convey that Lye is the end
of the world?
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It is a nice bit of painting of the Parish Church. One can also see in
the picture the Ebenezer Methodist Church which recently fell apart,
and more smoking chimney stacks than ever I recall from the past, and
whatever are those two glasshouse cones doing in Lye! It would have been a
far better thing to have shown a glimpse of the Oldnall Colliery which once
was a familiar landmark dominating the scene as much as it once dominated
the industrial life of the district. |
 |
We will now proceed to Stambermill where the living has just been
amalgamated with Lye. The chancel here is apsidal in form with the roof
running up at angles to an apex at the height of the nave roof. This makes
a good sounding board for the choir and in the apse are three stained
glass windows. In churches throughout the country can be seen the usual
‘Pot-Boilers’, the artist’s expression to describe windows which are easy
to dash off and provide his bread and butter. I would rate these as The
Good Shepherd, Christ blessing the little children and the Light of the
world, in that order. They have been repeated ad nauseum everywhere, and
Stambermill has its share with two Good Shepherds, two Blessing the Little
Children and one Light of the World.
I plead guilty to the Good Shepherd on the right of this group which was put
there in 1938. My work at this church included the renewal of many of the
leaded windows a few years ago. One windy morning, whilst putting in the
large West window which was high up on the West gable near the roof, the
Rev. Lutton came up and told me he had had a dream in which he saw me fall
from the top of the scaffolding. As you can imagine, this cheered me up no
end for the rest of the day. (St Mark's
Church Stambermill was demolished in February 1986. The fate of the
windows is unknown. They have probably been lost) |
