The Windows

Background
The roundels were given to the church by a local parishioner and benefactor in 1955. According to notes made at the time, they came via Nackington House near Canterbury, a large seventeenth-century mansion which was demolished in 1919. Shortly after their donation to the church, the panels were installed in a quarry-glazed partition in a newly built vestry annexe. Because of their location they were not seen by the public and remained largely unknown. They were not described in William Cole’s, A Catalogue of Netherlandish and North European Roundels in Britain, Corpus Vitrearum Great Britain, Summary Catalogue 1, Oxford, 1993. To the best of our knowledge they have never been published previously.
Description of the Panels
The roundels can be divided into two groups: three figurative roundels of continental origin and four heraldic roundels, almost certainly English. Fortunately, and significantly for this story, they were professionally photographed by Halksworth & Wheeler, a well-known firm of studio portrait photographers in Folkestone, before they were installed in the vestry. Without the existence of these excellent photographs, our task would truly have been impossible. The photographs show:
Roundel 1: The Archangel St Michael and the dragon surrounded by an ornamental border. Dark brown glass paint and pale lemon silver stain. The border or frame is later and includes two replacement sections. The style is Netherlandish or French, c. 1500. Size: approx. 395 x 315 mm.
Roundel 2: St Luke the Evangelist surrounded by an ornamental border. The saint sits in his study holding a crucifix. His evangelist symbol of the winged ox nestles on the floor to his right. A lavabo hangs above a fire behind him. No restoration replacements. Netherlandish or French. c. 1510 -20. Size: approx. Ø 300 mm.
Roundel 3: St George and the dragon surrounded by an ornamental border. Only one of the border pieces dates from the sixteenth century, the rest are restoration replacements. French or Netherlandish, possibly mid-sixteenth century. Size approx: Ø 305 mm.
Roundel 4: A coat of arms per pale, (1), sable a bend Or (gold) on a canton sinister argent (silver), a Lion’s mask Or, (2) sable a female Gryphon (or griffin) rampant argent.
Black paint and orange silver stain, no enamels, early sixteenth-century with a Renaissance-influenced garland border. Size: approx. Ø 320 mm.
In 1955 a cathedral archivist suggested that these arms might show Isacke of Ickham/Patrixbourne and Colkyn of Boughton-under-Blean, families and villages in the vicinity of Canterbury. Dr Richard Baker, FHG, the Vice-Principal of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, has recently confirmed that the dexter (left hand) coat is certainly that of the Isacke family of Patrixbourne, and that the Colkins of Boughton did indeed use a griffin for their arms. He has also drawn attention to references in the International Genealogical Index which allege that there was a marriage between Edward Isacke (son of William Isacke and Margaret Haute) and Margaret Griffin at Patrixbourne in 1542-ish . The Griffin families, including the Griffins of Braybrooke, also bore a similar coat of arms.
Roundel 5: Coat of arms [unidentified] argent. On a chevron sun between three Lion’s heads erased, (argent or natural colour), crudely executed and surrounded by an ornamental border with the date 1565, probably extraneous. Middle sixteenth century [?]. One old restoration to the border. Yellow silver stain. Size: approx. 420 x 325 mm. Once again Dr Baker has been extremely helpful, citing a close match with the Jephson family of Froyle, Hertfordshire and Mallow, Co. Cork – who bore ‘Argent, on a chevron sable between three lions’ heads erased gules bezanty a sun in splendour or’ (the lion heads were red with gold spots). He has also noted that there is a similar coat of arms for Johnson in which the sun is replaced by an estoile and the lion heads are red.
Roundel 6: The rebus of Prior Thomas Goldstone II (the penultimate Prior of Christchurch, Canterbury, subsequently Canterbury cathedral, 1495 – 1517) with the initials T and G flanking a crozier rising from a gold stone. Inscription: non nobıs d[omi]ne non nobis sed nomíní Tuo da gloriam which can be translated as: Verse 1 of Psalm 115 (or verse 9 of 113B in the Septuagint , the Greek version of Hebrew bible) : ‘Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your own name give the glory’. This verse also appears as an inscription on the buttressing arch between the western pillars of the central tower of Canterbury Cathedral. It is attributed to Prior Goldstone II by Joseph Cowper, The Memorial Inscriptions of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, 1897, Cross & Jackman (Canterbury) p. 251, on the grounds that Goldstone built the central tower. There is another Goldstone rebus on the Christ Church Gate of Canterbury Cathedral, just above the postern. Brown-black glass paint and a wide range of silver stain variations. Similar in style, colour, condition of glass and paint to Roundel 7. Three restoration replacements. Size: approx. Ø 365 mm.

Damage
In September 2006 the vestry of St Mary and St Eanswythe was attacked by arsonists during a break-in. The fire was started close to the vestry screen and as a result the roundels were badly damaged.
The St Luke and St George panels escaped serious damage and stayed within their lead matrix. The other five panels disintegrated and ended up on the floor in hundreds of small fragments, mixed up with the remains of glass from the quarry background, molten lead, and the charred remains of vestments and furnishings.
In the aftermath of the fire the churchwardens and members of the congregation sifted through this debris and collected the larger fragments on trays. Most of the remaining charcoal, lead and glass mixture was swept up and saved in two buckets.
Assessment, cleaning and locating fragments
The roundels which had survived in situ were removed by the Cathedral Studios shortly after the fire for cleaning and repair. The two buckets of fragments arrived at the studio some time later.
In April 2008 the condition of the glass was assessed in detail. As a result of sifting through the debris buckets many more fragments were found, some of them very small and others firmly embedded in molten lead. Several large lumps of lead had to be melted down to release the fragments hidden within.

The problem
Once the fragments were in their correct positions, the extent of the problem became clear: about 20% of the glass had been lost and most of the losses were not contiguous, but scattered across the roundels. Moreover, although the surface paint of the roundels proved to be relatively stable, this was more than could be said for the glass itself: apart from having shattered into hundreds of fragments, many of the individual fragments also displayed the craquelé of small stress fractures so typical of fire damage.
Traditional repair and infill methods were impossible due to the complex shapes and patchy survival of the historic glass. In many cases releading the breakages was also technically impossible.
The solution
The solution was found in the innovative use of resin casts. First, we made a cast to match the size of the original piece of glass with pockets for the fragments created by wax placeholders. After the resin had set the wax was removed and the original fragments were inserted into each pocket where they are held in their pre-damage position. Next we painted the missing parts of the roundel (with inside painting to minimise parallax distortions) onto a new sheet of thin glass which was ‘plated’ over the resin casts and leaded up as a ‘sandwich’ in the traditional manner.
Conclusion
This technique allows the glass to be read again, while still giving the viewer some indication of the catastrophic damage suffered by the objects. At the same time, the intervention is completely reversible. Without this treatment the fragments would probably have been destined for a dark drawer or a museum somewhere far away from the place where they belong.
The seven panels will not be re-installed into the vestry screen; rather the aim is to display them in a more accessible place within the church, together with information about their history and conservation.