Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Peter’s Church, Martindale, Design for Benedicite Stained Glass Windows (1975-77)

St Peter’s Church was built in Martindale, Cumbria in 1880 by a local craftsman using stone from the surrounding area. The church is situated in an enchanting rural oasis and has connections to the acclaimed modern poet, Kathleen Raine, who lived in the Old Vicarage, as well as William and Dorothy Wordsworth who visited the area on one of their Cumbrian excursions. Gray’s ‘Martindale Era’ lasted from 1974-1981, in which time, she designed and installed fifteen stained glass windows in St Peter’s Church. This pair of windows were commissioned as Gray was constructing her fifth, and supposedly last, window; the church had received a gift from an American donor who shared the name ‘Martindale’ and the vicar decided to commission two more windows on the them of the Benedicite.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

Early Design for Stained Glass Memorial Window (1962)

A rare example of Gray’s early work, this design shows a more traditional approach to stained glass window design, something that Gray came to eschew in favour of a more modern style in much of her later work. This design was for a memorial window commemorating Rosemary Anstice, although its intended location is unknown.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Andrew’s Church, Walton-on-Thames, Design for Stained Glass Window (1993)

Signed, dated and studio stamp verso.

St Andrew’s Church was built in 1931 but its story began some years earlier in 1928 when a group of Scots and those with Scottish roots, started meeting in the Walton Playhouse to worship under a retired Presbyterian Minister. Over time, funds were raised to build a proper church, the foundation stone laid in 1931, bearing the Presbyterian Church’s Latin motto,  ‘Nec Tamen Consumebatur’ (and yet it was not consumed) from the Old Testament story of Moses and the Burning Bush. In 1972, alongside most Presbyterian Churches of England, St Andrew’s united with The Congregational Church of England and Wales to form, ‘The United Reformed Church’. This window features a red cross with St Andrew’s cross, along with the Alpha and Omega, and was installed in 1994.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Peter’s Church, Chorley, Lancashire, Design for Stained Glass Window (1987)

Signed, dated and studio stamp verso.

St Peter’s Church was designed by the Liverpudlian architect, Charles Reed in the Early English style and built in 1850 with stone donated from Lady Hoghton’s nearby quarry. Reed wrote, ‘The general effect is expected to be very quaint and beautiful, while its elevated situation will make it a charming landmark from every side’. The church was consecrated on St Mark’s Day, 1851 by the first Bishop of Manchester, the Rt. Revd. James Prince Lee. This window was installed in 1988.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St John the Baptist Church, Preen Manor, Design for Stained Glass Window (2003)

Signed, dated and studio stamp verso.

St John the Baptist Church sits at the heart of the Shropshire hamlet, Preen. Church Preen Manor sits adjacent to the church and lies on an old Clunjac Monastery, thought to have been built in 1159. The present church was built in the 13th century although it was originally a monastic church, founded as a cell of Wenlock Priory in 1163 and features in the Domesday Book. A prior and two or three monks would have served the church, however the priory has little remains, excepting a few visible in the gardens of Church Preen Manor.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

All Saints Church, Lightwater, Surrey, Design for Stained Glass Window (1990)

Signed, dated and studio stamp verso.

All Saints Church in Lightwater, Surrey was built and dedicated in 1903. Prior to this, services were held in Florence Laundry in Guildford Road as, at that time, Lightwater was a small hamlet. With the development of nurseries and cottages to house the influx of workers that followed soon after, the Conventional District of All Saints’ was formed in 1931. Before this, All Saints Church had been a daughter church of Windlesham. A Priest-in-Charge was appointed shortly after the split in 1931 and a vestry extension was added to the building. This window commemorates the church’s organist, Catherine Challen, and features symbols associated with St Cecilia in acknowledgement of her musical contribution. The window was installed in 1991.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St James’ Church, Weddington, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Design for Stained Glass Memorial Window (1989)

St James’ Church in Weddington dates back to the early-14th-century. The chancel, nave, and west tower were rebuilt in red brick in 1733, and the building was restored in 1881, when Gothic windows were inserted in place of the 1733 details. This design fantastically demonstrates Gray’s modernist style, with her colourful palette and simple yet detailed, geometrical structure. This window was installed in 1990.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St James, Temple Sowerby, Cumbria, Design for Stained Glass Window (1978)

St James’ Church in Temple Sowerby, Cumbria was built in 1754, and enlarged in 1770, the west tower being added in 1807. In his 1831 work, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis described the church as ‘a handsome structure of red freestone, with a square tower and portico’.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

Design for Large Stained Glass Window in a Church

33.5 x 20.5 cm

This design for a stained glass window draws together Gray’s modern yet traditional approach to designing church windows. The design features a central, inwardly repeating star shape with bright flame-like shapes curling upwards from its corners. This central motif sits against a blue sky background with smaller stars scattered in the smaller glass panes at the top of the design.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

Stained Glass Window Design, St Mary’s Church, Twickenham (1960)

41 x 37 cm

This stained glass window design is one of a handful Gray designed for her local church, St Mary’s Twickenham. St Mary’s Church stands on the site of an earlier church in Twickenham, a short distance from York House and the banks of the River Thames, and incorporates a 15th-century, medieval tower. St Mary's has an impressive and illustrious history of notable parishioners including the painter Godfrey Kneller who, after the collapse of the ancient church's 14th-century nave in 1714, took active involvement in redesigning the church in the Neo-classical style alongside local architect John James, as well as Henry Fielding and Alfred Lord Tennyson whose sons were both baptised here. Gray had a personal connection to St Mary’s, her great grandfather having been the vicar some years before. This design, in particular, commemorates the  benedictine monastery at the mouth of the Somme River: the Abbey of Saint Valery-sur-Somme. The imagery focusses on the repeated motif of the heraldic and highly symbolic fleur-de-lis, set against a sky blue background, the central shield containing the head of an ornate, gilt shepherd’s crook; a religious symbol of care, particularly in difficult circumstances.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Mary’s Church, Penwortham, Lancashire, Design for Stained Glass Window Dedicated to the Royal British Legion (1984)

Dated and artist label verso.

St Mary’s Church, set in the midst of ancient woodland, is the parish church of the Ancient Parish of Penwortham and dates from the 14th century. The church Nave and Chancel contain several memorial windows and tablets sacred to the memory of parishioners who have died; most are Victorian, such as memorial to John Horrocks, a prominent industrialist in the golden age of the Lancashire cotton industry who founded the textile company Horrockses, Miller, & Co., but the North wall features Gray’s traditional design for a window dedicated to the Royal British Legion.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Margaret’s Church, Downham, Billericay, Essex, Design for Stained Glass Window

Signed and studio stamp verso.

It is likely that Christians have worshiped at this site for over a thousand years, but it wasn’t until the mid13th century that the first recorded church appeared. The church is dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, a dragon slayer and patron saint of child bearing. Devotion Saint Margaret of Antioch became popular in the 13th century and there are around 80 churches today that share this dedication from the 13th century. The oldest part of the present church is the tower which dates from c.1470. The nave was rebuilt in the nineteenth century using much of the material from the thirteenth century church. An arson attack in March 1977 resulted in the gutting of the church, resulting in a highly modern interior. This window features the symbol of St Margaret and a red Cross on quarry background. The window was installed in 1988.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

St Lawrence Church, Weston under Penyard, Design for Stained Glass Window (1999)

Signed, dated and studio stamp verso.

St Catherine’s Church, Penrith is a Puginian Gothic town church, built by Fr George Haydock of Cottam and other Catholic notables in the early 19th century in the 14th century Gothic style. The church and its substantial presbytery, built in 1853, adjoin the churchyard of the Anglican parish church. This window was installed in 1992.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

Gatton Church, nr Redhill, Surrey, Design for Stained Glass Window (1979)

Dated, detailed in artist’s hand and studio label verso.

A church has existed in this Surrey parish since the Doomsday Survey in 1086 but the present Church dates back to the 13th century, undergoing extensive alterations in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Notably, in 1834, the pulpit and altar, bought from Nuremberg, were hopefully attributed to Albrecht Dürer; the carved doors had travelled from Rouen; the presbytery stalls from a disestablished monastery in Ghent, the altar rails from Tongeren; and the stained glass for the windows, and the wainscoting of the nave and carved canopies had come from Aarschot, near Leuven. This tiny church window was one of Gray’s smallest commissions. Her brief was to include the church at the heart of the Gatton agricultural community, and she did, supplementing this with illustrations of corn, oats, barley, poppies, bees, butterflies, ladybirds, a caterpillar and a grasshopper, alongside small roundels set amongst these containing a calf, a tractor, and a combine harvester respectively. The window was installed in 1980.

Jane Gray (b.1931)

Gilmour Coat of Arms, Stained Glass Window Design

38.5 x 32.5 cm

The Gilmours are part of clan Morrison of the Isle of Lewis, and the first documented bearer of this surname was Richard Gilemore, who was recorded in the Feet of Fines of Huntindonshire in 1228 AD. The family mottoes include, as Gray uses here, Perseveranti dabitur, meaning ‘It will be given to the persevering’.