Ecclesiastical Stained Glass

Ecclesiastical stained glass is the glass made for churches, cathedrals, chapels and other places of worship. It is the oldest and best-known use of stained glass, and for many centuries it was the main use. The pictures in the glass told Bible stories and saints’ lives to people who could not read, and they also made the building feel different, since the light that came in was coloured and, quite literally, filtered through the story.

The term describes where the glass is, not how it is made. Most of it is built the way traditional stained glass is, with pieces of coloured glass held together in lead, but the setting has shaped the subjects, the scale and the way it has to be looked after.

The parts of a church window

Church windows have their own vocabulary, and a few words make a window much easier to read. The vertical divisions are called lights, so a window with four of them is a four-light window. Stone bars that separate the lights are mullions. The decorative stonework in the arch at the top is tracery, and in Gothic architecture the shapes it makes, such as trefoils, quatrefoils and flowing curves, are one of the clearest clues to the date of the building. A tall, narrow, pointed window without tracery is a lancet.

Outside, many church windows have a protective layer of clear glass or plastic in front of the original glass. From the inside you can often tell, because the window looks slightly distant and flat.

What is in the pictures

Subjects fall into a few groups. Biblical scenes run in rows, often reading from the bottom upwards, with the life of Christ the most common. Single standing figures, such as saints and apostles, are usually identifiable by their attributes. St Peter holds keys, for example, and St Catherine is shown with a wheel. Many windows are memorials, given by a family in memory of someone, and the dedication is often written on a panel at the bottom. Heraldic shields, symbols of the Evangelists and flower patterns fill the smaller spaces, especially in the tracery at the top.

Medieval glass and the Victorian revival

Surviving medieval windows are rare, because glass is fragile and much of it was lost to weather, war and changes in religious fashion. The medieval glass painter worked with coloured glass cut to shape and joined with lead, then painted details such as faces, hands and folds of cloth onto it with a dark paint that was fired in a kiln. From around the fourteenth century, a silver-based stain gave a clear yellow, which made it possible to paint a gold crown on a piece of white glass.

The nineteenth century brought an enormous revival. The Gothic Revival made medieval-style windows fashionable again, churches were being built and restored in great numbers, and many studios, some of them large commercial firms, produced windows in a version of the medieval manner. That is why most church glass you see in Britain is Victorian or Edwardian, and why the style is described under traditional stained glass. For more of the background, there is a short history of stained glass.

Clear glass in churches

Not every church window is coloured. Many of the oldest parish churches are lit through clear leaded glass, in diamond or square panes, often set in plain stone frames. It is easy to overlook, but it is also a leaded light in the full sense, and often it is the oldest glass in the building.

Caring for church windows

Church windows are exposed to the weather, to condensation inside and to the slow movement of old lead. A window that is bulging or has lost its protective glazing should be looked at by a specialist. The process for having work done on a church is usually controlled, so ask before anything is touched. The conservation and restoration page explains what is usually involved.

See more church glass

The ecclesiastical stained glass gallery collects photographs of church windows, with notes on each one.

You can also look at church glass one building at a time in Ecclesiastical Buildings, which starts with St Andrew’s Church in Chippenham, where Victorian windows by several London firms survive, and a small hospice chapel in Northampton with modern panels.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between stained glass and ecclesiastical stained glass?

Ecclesiastical simply means belonging to a church. The glass is generally the same kind of material and construction, but it is made for a religious setting and often carries religious subjects.

How old is the stained glass in a local church?

Most likely Victorian or Edwardian. Medieval glass survives in a smaller number of buildings, and modern windows, from the twentieth century onwards, are also common. The style of the figures and the date on a memorial panel are the quickest clues.

Can church windows be photographed?

Usually, but ask first, since rules vary from church to church. Recent windows by living artists may also be protected by copyright, so check before publishing a photograph of one.

History and related reading

Medieval Stained Glass and the Origins of Leaded Lights, Stained Glass from the Gothic Revival to the Twentieth Century. See also A Short History of Stained Glass.

Care: see How to Clean Decorative Glass Safely. Whether coloured glass fades is answered in Does Coloured Stained Glass Fade?.

Painted detail on church glass is fixed by firing in a kiln. How Painted and Silver Stained Glass Is Fired gives temperatures, schedules and the order of firings for a painted scene.

To see windows like these in place, follow the stained glass tour of the UK, and learn to read a church window.

Frequently asked questions