The Stained Glass Windows.

                                                   Good Shepherd WindowThe quatrefoils of the south west window show two angels swinging thuribles. These small pieces of exquisitely decorated glass are all that remains intact of the medieval glass destroyed during the Commonwealth period. A few fragments of medieval glass found in the churchyard have been assembled into a collage in the small north window in the aisle. All of the rest of the stained glass is by the famous and greatly talented Herbert Bryans.

Herbert Bryans was born in 1856. His father was a vicar and his mother was the youngest daughter of Bishop Lonsdale of Lichfield. In 1877 Herbert went to India as the manager of a tea plantation. After ten years as he was returning to England through France he saw a vineyard for sale. When the train stopped, he threw all his luggage out and bought the vineyard on the spot! He remained there for two years making wine and then returned to England in 1889. It was then that he began a new career as a stained glass artist.

He was a student of world renowned Charles Eamer Kempe [1838-1907] whose windows grace many of the cathedrals and churches of Great Britain. There is little doubt that Bryans was at least as skilled as Kempe, and some of his works may even surpass those of Kempe. Bryans's "signature" is a greyhound often concealed in the decoration surrounding the inscription on a window.

Herbert Bryans Greyhound Signature

 

His windows at Cranwell include: on the south nave wall the Good Shepherd, the Annunciation, and the Nativity; on the west wall St Andrew; and on the north wall St George, St Christopher, St Martin and St Catherine.