IT MAY not quite match the Elgin Marbles dispute between Britain and Greece but there are still rumblings about how and why, nearly a hundred years ago, some of Salisbury Cathedral’s priceless 13th-century stained glass found its way into Winchester Cathedral.
The mediaeval Salisbury glass, now the oldest glass in Winchester Cathedral, remains today within the very fabric of the building, never (one assumes) to be returned to the city’s friendly rival in Wiltshire.
What’s more, some of it occupies a position in one of the most revered Cathedral spaces, the charmingly-named Guardian Angels’ Chapel.
There was no song and dance when the glass was installed in Winchester, confirmed by The Winchester Cathedral Record’s downbeat account of it in 1938: "Dr Stanley Baker has been working throughout the year on completing the beautiful mediaeval glass which he has presented to Winchester.
"The insertion of the glass is under the direction of Mr TD Atkinson [Cathedral Architect] and its dedication at Evensong will mark a benefaction of outstanding generosity to our great church.”
The whole story had been laid bare when the Rev Dr Stanley Baker, a Salisbury Cathedral ‘vicar choral’, gave a lecture to our own Cathedral Friends in Winchester on St Swithun’s Day in 1937.
In the course of his lecture, he tried to answer the big question of exactly why he had offered his own cathedral's mediaeval glass to Winchester and, more to the point, why had Winchester even accepted it?
Dr Baker told the Winchester Friends that when Salisbury Cathedral was completed in 1258, “its windows were filled with stained glass, mostly the ‘grisaille’ type – a dark greyish colour arranged in geometrical patterns.
"In the significant 1789 restoration works, most of the glass was broken up and thrown into the ‘Town Ditch’, to be replaced with much lighter clear glass which was in vogue at the time."
In 1924, Canon Baker had been present at a special dedication service in Salisbury Cathedral when its famous Jesse Window was moved back to its original position in the south aisle.
It was during that service, apparently, that Canon Baker wondered why no one had ever thought of searching for the lost grisaille glass.
After Salisbury’s Dean gave it his blessing, Baker set up a comprehensive search for the discarded glass and there followed what can only be described as a remarkable investigative operation in and around the Salisbury Cathedral estate.
A campaign was launched in The Times, a protracted correspondence was conducted in its letters column and it closely reported subsequent developments.
After seven years of intense effort, absolutely nothing was found.
Baker persevered, though, and was miraculously rewarded when pockets of mediaeval glass eventually began to be discovered in various rubbish heaps, not only in Salisbury but elsewhere in Britain and America, too.
Dr Baker immediately set about re-making ‘leaded’ windows, using the rediscovered fragments of the 13th century glass. The Salisbury Journal reported Dr Baker’s account of what happened next:
"When I had completed all the important [window] parts, I asked the Dean and Chapter to come and inspect my work and tell me how they would wish me to complete it.
"They asked the keeper of the ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum for his advice. He said it was genuine 13th century glass and should be preserved.
"He, however, expressed a doubt as to whether it would look well in any conspicuous part of the cathedral.
"The Dean and Chapter sent me an official letter saying they did not see their way to placing the glass in any of the vacant windows of the cathedral but expressed their willingness to accept ‘samples’ to be placed in the cathedral library."
Baker was appalled at the Dean and Chapter’s dismissive attitude.
He considered, but rejected, selling the glass to willing buyers in New York.
Eventually, this was his riposte to Dean and Chapter:
"A substance which is scarcer than diamonds is only in the right place, high up in a cathedral window. I, therefore, packed up a panel and offered it to Winchester Cathedral.
"In the course of a few days, the panels which I had made, sixteen in number, were in the windows of Winchester’s 13th-century retrochoir, and now the sun shines through this Salisbury glass upon the tombs of two of the founders of colleges of my own university, William of Waynflete and Richard Fox."
That, of course, was not the end of the matter.
Baker was soon challenged by senior clergy of the Salisbury Diocese.
Why hadn’t he accepted the offer by the Dean to put the glass into the Cathedral Library window?
Dr Baker’s reply was reported in The Times in November, 1937: "Am I to blame for this glass going to Winchester?
"Since Salisbury Cathedral seemed to be inexorably closed, what was I to do?
"There was a real likelihood that when I and those nearest to me had fulfilled our days, it would again be thrown away and, this time, perhaps, lost irretrievably. That is the reason why I gave all that I had set up to Winchester."
The final conciliatory word in this sad saga must be from the current head of Salisbury’s glazing team, Sam Kelly:
"It is always interesting to find out what has happened to the ancient glass from Salisbury, removed in the so-called re-ordering at the end of the 18th century: it pops up all over the place even in America.
"So, it is gratifying that a large quantity found its way into the care of Winchester Cathedral but a little galling that this was allowed to happen by disinterested parties at Salisbury in the 1930s, doubly so for poor old Canon Baker who put in so much of his personal time and effort into retrieving glass that had been carelessly removed and discarded in the 1790s.”
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