English stained glass changes with the architecture around it. Window shapes, the way figures are drawn, the colours available and the amount of white glass all shift from period to period, and learning the pattern makes it possible to guess the approximate age of a window at a glance. Dates are approximate, and styles overlapped and lingered, especially in smaller churches.
| Period | Dates (approx.) | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Romanesque / Norman | To about 1190 | Round arches, small windows, deep blues and ruby, figures in medallions. Few survive. |
| Early English | c.1190 to 1250 | Tall lancet windows, medallion windows, figures under canopies, mosaic-like patterns, grisaille growing in use. |
| Decorated | c.1250 to 1350 | Large windows with curving tracery; naturalistic leaves, lively figures; silver stain first used. |
| Perpendicular | c.1350 to 1530 | Vertical tracery, large windows, more white glass, large single figures under canopies, heraldry. |
| Georgian | 1700s to c.1830 | Enamel painting on clear glass; pictorial, often copying paintings. |
| Victorian Gothic Revival | c.1840 to 1900 | Return to medieval forms and colours, hand-made glass; large workshops. |
| Arts and Crafts | c.1880 to 1930 | Thicker, uneven glass; fewer painted details; individual designers. |
| Modern and contemporary | 1940s onward | Abstract and figurative; dalle de verre, large-scale commissions. |
Early windows to about 1190
The oldest English glass is very rare. Small windows set in thick walls did not offer much space, and glass was made in small pieces. Deep blues and rubies dominate, and the figures are formal. Canterbury Cathedral holds some of the best surviving work from the late twelfth century, including medallions of rich colour.
Early English, c.1190 to 1250
Tall, narrow lancet windows are the architectural signature. Stories were told in small medallions set in a background of coloured glass, or single figures stood under canopies. Border patterns look like mosaic. Grisaille windows, silvery with a little colour, grew popular in this period. Lincoln Cathedral’s Dean’s Eye was begun in 1192 and finished in 1235, and the Five Sisters window at York dates from about 1260.
Decorated, c.1250 to 1350
Windows grew wider and tracery became curved and flowing. Silver stain was first used in England about 1309, at York, and it gave artists a way of putting yellow on white glass without a separate piece of lead. Foliage was drawn from nature. Wells Cathedral’s Golden Window, a Tree of Jesse of 1340 to 1345, is an outstanding example, and Lincoln’s Bishop’s Eye was finished in 1330.
Perpendicular, c.1350 to 1530
Large windows with straight vertical mullions and a great deal of clear glass. Big figures stand under tall canopies, and coats of arms often replace portraits of donors. Flemish influence grew late in the period. Famous examples include the Great East Window at York (1405 to 1408), the glass at Great Malvern (1423 to 1439), All Souls College, Oxford (1441 to 1447) and King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, where the Great East Window and the Renaissance glass date from about 1516 to 1526. Fairford in Gloucestershire has an outstanding complete scheme of the same era.
After the Reformation and the Georgian era
Much medieval glass was destroyed or removed after the Reformation and again in the seventeenth century. By the early nineteenth century stained glass was close to dying as an art. In the eighteenth century painters worked in enamel colours on clear glass, copying paintings, an approach that proved fragile because the paint was not fused as deeply as the older methods. New College Chapel in Oxford has an important example designed by Sir Joshua Reynolds and painted by Thomas Jervais in the 1780s.
Victorian Gothic Revival, c.1840 to 1900
Interest in medieval art grew with the Gothic Revival in architecture. Pot-metal glass was revived, and makers such as Thomas Willement, Clayton and Bell, Hardman and Heaton, Butler and Bayne ran large workshops, filling thousands of new and restored churches. The style is typically bright and detailed, with strong blues and reds. See famous workshops and makers for more.
Arts and Crafts and the Aesthetic movement
Reacting against what they saw as factory production, designers including William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Christopher Whall looked for greater honesty of material. Whall promoted thick, uneven “slab” glass that was cut into big pieces with few painted details, and his large east window at Stamford in 1891 was the first major window to use it. This school influenced decades of glass-making and teaching.
Twentieth century to the present
The twentieth century saw both traditional work and radical experiments. After the Second World War much bomb-damaged glass was replaced. John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens collaborated on major commissions including the Baptistery at Coventry Cathedral (1961) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Marc Chagall designed all twelve windows at Tudeley in Kent after the death of Sarah d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, a project that ran from 1967 to 1985, and he also designed a window at Chichester Cathedral unveiled in 1978. Dalle de verre, thick slabs of glass set in resin or concrete, became popular from the 1950s.
Quick tips for dating a window
- Look at the architecture first. The shape of the opening and tracery is the best clue.
- Look at the glass. Even, flat colour and sharp edges point to the nineteenth century; wavy surfaces and pits suggest older glass.
- Look at the paint. Delicate shading and matt backgrounds are Victorian; broad dark lines and flat shapes are earlier or Arts and Crafts.
- Look at the inscription. Many windows are dated.
- Look for the maker’s mark, often at the bottom corner.