Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires, and its Lady Chapel holds some of the most valuable glass in the country: panels painted in the 1530s for Herkenrode Abbey, in what is now Belgium.
The Herkenrode glass
After the abbey was dissolved in the years of the French Revolution, its glass was sold and brought to England, and it was installed in the Lady Chapel in the early nineteenth century. It now fills seven of the nine windows of the chapel. The panels were painted in a Flemish Renaissance style that differs from the English medieval glass seen at York or Canterbury, with rounded figures, architectural settings and strong colour.
The cathedral also has later glass, including Charles Kempe’s Tree of the Church in the south transept, dated 1895.
| Place | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Lichfield, Staffordshire, England |
| Type | Cathedral |
| Period | Medieval and Victorian |
| Glass artists | Unrecorded Flemish workshop (Herkenrode glass); Charles Eamer Kempe |
Are you responsible for this building?
If you are connected with the administration of this location, you are welcome to supply StainedGlass.co.uk with photographs so that a detailed page can be written about the location. Where photographs are provided and approved, a link to the location’s own website is added to the page. Approval is checked before anything is published.
The building and its glass can also be covered in a Location Article: invite StainedGlass.co.uk to visit you. Visits are limited, so not every invitation can be taken up.
Related pages
- Stained glass tour of the UK
- How to read a church window
- Churches and Cathedrals
- Medieval stained glass and leaded lights
- Famous workshops and makers
- Ecclesiastical stained glass
- Wightwick Manor
Published 4 November 2026