The Windows

The windows were supplied by Wm. Morris & Co., he being one of the group of artists known as the Pre-Raphelites. By the early 1850s the brotherhood was in decline, and had dissolved by 1855. Rossetti founded a second brotherhood at Oxford with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris (1860s-90s). Wm. Morris (1834-96) realized he had no great talent for painting but that he could design and in 1861 founded Morris & Co. to produce wallpapers, furnishings, and stained glass windows.All the stained glass windows in Albion, apart from those in the transept commissioned by Abel Buckley, are from standard designs. Abel Buckley’s commissioned work cost him £300 each but the designs remained the property of the firm and some may have been later used elsewhere. There are some surviving records of Morris & Co’s designs which have been recorded by Charles Sewter in his 2-volume work “The Stained Glass of Wm. Morris and his Circle”, published by Yale University Press (1974-74) and a copy of the page relating to Albion’s stained glass is shown as an Appendix. Traditionally, the North side of a Church or Cathedral is associated with the Old Testament.The events and writings that lead towards the central mystery of the Christian faith, the Passion, belonging to the east end. The South side is concerned with the New Testament since the events of the Passion, that is, the teachings of Christ and the examples of the saints and martyrs who carry the Word through time. In the West lies the future, which in Christian iconography means the Last Judgement and the end of time. The East Window The Window’s Receipt Transept and Clerestory Windows

Albion United Reformed Church

Stamford St E, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 6QQ