The Revival and Evolution of English Stained Glass: 19th–21st Centuries

The Gothic Revival and the Rediscovery of Craft (19th century)

The revival of stained glass in 19th-century England formed part of a wider Gothic Revival movement, which sought to restore the moral and spiritual authority of medieval art in an industrial age. The Cambridge Camden Society (founded 1839) and figures such as A.W.N. Pugin argued that Gothic architecture and its attendant crafts, particularly stained glass, embodied Christian truth and moral integrity.

This ideology inspired the establishment of new studios devoted to the study and recreation of medieval glazing techniques. Early firms such as Ward & Hughes, Hardman & Co., and Clayton and Bell reintroduced pot-metal glass, vitreous paint, and traditional firing methods. Their work, often produced for new or restored Anglican churches, combined historical fidelity with a new moral earnestness. The vivid colours and elongated Gothic figures of these windows filled thousands of Victorian churches, transforming the visual and devotional landscape of Britain.

The Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts Movements (late 19th century)

By the later decades of the century, the Gothic Revival had matured into a broader artistic inquiry into the relationship between craft, beauty, and industry. The Arts and Crafts Movement, led by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, redefined stained glass as both an expressive art and a moral vocation. Their firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (founded 1861), treated glass painting as a handcraft of integrity, rooted in natural materials and medieval principles but responsive to modern design.

Burne-Jones’s figures, graceful, introspective, and symbolically charged, mark one of the great achievements of English stained glass. His narrative cycles at Birmingham Cathedral, Jesus College, Cambridge, and Christ Church, Oxford, display an unrivalled poetic sensibility and a mastery of line and colour harmony. The Morris firm’s combination of artistic unity and craftsmanship exerted a profound influence on later makers across Europe and America.

Early 20th Century: Expression and Experiment

The early 20th century saw stained glass evolving beyond revivalism into a modern artistic medium. Designers such as Christopher Whall, Karl Parsons, and Henry Holiday promoted a freer, more painterly style, integrating influences from Symbolism and Art Nouveau. Whall’s seminal treatise Stained Glass Work (1905) argued for the artist’s direct engagement with every stage of production, cutting, painting, and leading, to preserve the integrity of the craft.

This period also witnessed a revival of ecclesiastical commissions in cathedrals and colleges, notably the windows at Glasgow Cathedral, Canterbury, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where designers combined medieval craftsmanship with the vitality of modern design. The First World War interrupted this flowering but also inspired a new generation of memorial windows imbued with themes of sacrifice and redemption.

Mid-Century Renewal (1945–1970)

After the destruction wrought by the Second World War, stained glass once again became a medium of reconstruction and reconciliation. Artists such as John Piper, Patrick Reyntiens, and Keith New redefined church glazing through a modernist lens. Piper’s designs for Coventry Cathedral (1962) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (1967) exemplify the post-war synthesis of abstraction and spirituality, the use of light, texture, and colour to evoke transcendence rather than narrative illustration.

Parallel developments occurred across Europe, with the French ateliers of Gabriel Loire and Henri Matisse influencing a generation of British artists. The medium shifted decisively from figural storytelling to the architectural integration of light and colour, turning windows into fields of spiritual atmosphere rather than pictorial panels.

Contemporary Practice (1970–Present)

From the 1970s onward, English stained glass diversified both aesthetically and conceptually. Artists such as Lawrence Lee, John Hayward, and Alison Kinnaird explored abstraction, symbolism, and the expressive properties of light and glass as independent elements. Technical innovation, dalle de verre, etched float glass, laminated and fused materials, expanded the vocabulary of the medium beyond traditional leaded construction.

In cathedrals such as Ely, Durham, and Gloucester, new commissions by artists including Tom Denny, Helen Whittaker, and Brian Clarke demonstrate the continuing vitality of stained glass as a contemporary sacred art form. These works often bridge theology, environmental awareness, and abstract expression, reasserting the window as a living medium of contemplation and light.

Conclusion: Tradition and Transformation

Across nine centuries, stained glass in England has evolved from the luminous theology of the medieval period to the spiritual abstraction of the modern age. Each revival, whether Gothic, Arts and Crafts, or modernist, has reinterpreted the interplay between light, colour, and faith for its own time. Yet the essential purpose endures: to mediate between the material and the divine, to turn sunlight into sacred experience, and to embody through glass the ever-renewed imagination of belief.