The History of St Paul's Church, Stalybridge: Factsheet
The Windows
The first of our windows was set in place in 1851 and is by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier of Brussels. It is possible it was chosen by Mrs Bates who gave it to the church, after seeing Capronniers displayed at the Great Exhibition in London that year. This became the first of 14 placed in the church over a number of years by this designer (although two were removed during the remodelling of the church in the 1990s).
The east window is by William Wailes of Newcastle on Tyne and was a gift from Mr James Buckley in 1857. The oriel part of the window depicts St. Paul preaching from the Agora in Athens and the main partions depict scenes from the life of Christ.
The memorial window placed in the South Transcept in 1913 was given by Mrs Garside in memory of her husband and renovated in the 1990s and lit from behind in memory of Mr Ken Lee. The window is a copy of the painting by Wm Holman Hunt: "The Light of the World" - the original is in Keble College, Oxford.
As a memorial to Canon Sheriff who was Vicar
of St. Pauls for 36 years (1888-1923), a west window was erected
in 1925 and paid for by public subscription. It is a very different
style of window because of its heraldic design depicting the
Arms of the Province of York, Diocese of Chester and Cambridge
University (from which he graduated). Over the top of the window
is an S and a gold cross and on each side is carved in relief
in the stone work the monogram in Greek "Jesus and Christ". Note
by Shirley Bayley
The main window in the south transept is by the firm of Jones and Willis of Birmingham. The same use of architectural detail suggests that they also supplied the windows in the north transept and the side windows in the sanctuary. Jones & Willis Ltd (established about 1847) was a Birmingham firm who manufactured church furnishings. Jones & Willis were one of the biggest firms of this kind in the latter part of the nineteenth century. They also opened premises in Liverpool and in London. Jones & Willis began to supply stained glass from about 1880, and has been described as one of the "Gothic Revival traditionalists".
Jean-Baptiste Capronnier (1814-91)
Jean-Baptiste was the son of Francois Capronnier who had settled in Brussels, around 1830, after spending some time at the Sevres factory. Together with his son, Francois set out to rediscover the technique of glass painting - a craft for which Belgian artists had been well-known in the past, but one which had fallen into neglect. Jean-Baptiste's early reputation was built on this study of old methods of working and the clever restoration of older examples of stained glass work, as well as copies made for the Brussels archaeological museum.
Jean-Baptiste took over the workshop in 1840 and under his direction it expanded with commissions coming from all over Europe, including many in Britain. His work went into private and public buildings as well as churches and cathedrals establishing Capronnier as the greatest of the nineteenth century Belgian stained glass designers and restorers. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he won the only medal awarded for glass painting.
Capronnier's work was popular in Britain and a favourite of Charles Winston, the London lawyer who is credited with the rediscovery of the methods of making coloured glass in the middle of the nineteenth century. Capronnier exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 - where Mrs. Bates may have seen examples of his work.
Martin Harrison in Victorian Stained Glass (Barrie & Jenkins, 1980) describes Capronnier's windows as "blatantly bright and technically brilliant" and goes on to say: "is it too fanciful to suggest that windows which were so clearly the result of long and painstaking labour naturally found favour with the wealthy industrialist patronage?"
While
Jean-Baptiste carried out some of the designs himself, he also
employed a number of other artists, including Charles de Groux,
Constantin Meunier, Francois Joseph Navez.
Jean-Baptiste died in 1891 aged 77. His business was carried
on my his son, Jules-Adrien in association with Francois-Ambroise
Comere until 1910 when the Capronnier workshops were bought
by Camille and Arthur Wybo.
Our thanks go to the Stained Glass Museum for help in finding information
on Capronnier.