Stained Glass.
n typically defiant fashion, some of the original stained glass hung on to the tracery to survive the onslaught of the blitz, as is shown by this lovely photo of a window in the north wall, taken by my wife, Bev.
In the early part of the war leading up to the blitz, the potential threat to the cathedral during air-raids was fully realized and certain measures to preserve the buildings heritage were undertaken. One such measure was to remove the 'artistic' stained glass which had greatest value, leaving behind the simple geometrically patterned glass.
At a cost of £600 and several months of work, most of the glass in the apse and the celestory windows above the nave was removed and stored in various places, including the rectory in Hampton Lucy, near Stratford. (Picured right.) Much of the glass originated from the 1400's and although £600 for such an exercise doesn't seem a large sum today, with inflation it would be worth in the region of one hundred times that figure in the early 21st century.
Some of the saved glass is now stored in the undercroft of the New Cathedral. I've put together a montage on the left containing seven of the pieces displayed there in St. Michael's Hall.
However, not all the glass was recovered. With sad irony, taking the medieval glass away from the site of destruction was not enough to keep it safe. Some of it was stolen during the war, and re-used in other places - one such place being Lutheran Cathedral in Akureyri, Iceland.
