Stained Glass

St Peter’s Church is fortunate to have several lovely windows. Of note are two windows by Capronnier, one on the right by the entrance door, the Nativity with the shepherds and magi adoring the infant Jesus. The other opposite the main door depicting the Resurrection. There was a third but it was irreparably damaged in the 1982 during a storm.

Jean-Baptiste Capronnier (1 February 1814 – 31 July 1891) was a Belgian stained glass painter. Born in Brussels, Belgium in 1814, he had much to do with the modern revival of glass-painting, and first made his reputation by his study of the old methods of workmanship, and his clever restorations of old examples, and copies made for the Brussels archaeological museum. He carried out windows for various churches in Brussels (including the Église Royale Sainte-Marie), Bruges, Amsterdam and elsewhere), and his work was commissioned also for France, Italy and England. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he won the only medal given for glasspainting. He died in Schaerbeek in 1891. (source Wikipedia)

To the left of the main door is a window by Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) a Victorian designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichgates and memorials that helped to define a later nineteenth-century Anglican style.

Charles Kempe was born at Ovingdean Hall, near Brighton. In 1866 he opened a studio of his own in London, supplying and creating stained glass and furnishings and vestments. The firm prospered and by 1899 he had over fifty employees. As a trademark, the firm used a golden garb or wheatsheaf, taken from Kempe's own coat of arms (left side).The mid-Victorian period were important years in the history of the design of English churches and Kempe’s influence is found in numerous examples, many in his home county of Sussex which has 116 examples of his work. He is buried at Ovingdean. (source Wikipedia)

Kempe was very much influenced by the Anglo-Catholic revival in the 19th century and at one time, wished to present himself as a candidate for the priesthood. Unfortunately, he suffered from a severe stammer which he felt would preclude him from exercising an effective ministry, so as he said: 'If I was not able to minister in the Sanctuary, I would use my talents to adorn it'.