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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Interesting find! I wasn’t aware of the source Here a photo from my visit a few years ago

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Sorry - really thought this one was fantastic

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Whole thing. Well worth seeing but call up church ahead of visit. It’s under the tower and normally covered with a curtain (which you can’t move)!

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

A seraph bears a six-pointed star - the central panel of Karl Parsons’ fine west window at St Laurence’s, Ansley (Warks.) Dated 1930

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Unusual little object in the south porch at Much Dewchurch Three-strand interlace pattern and carved on both sides. But what is it? Malcolm Thurlby think a c12 grave marker. Very rare survival if so

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Superb rainwater heads too - what an enjoyable little building!

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

cornucopias or cornucopiae?

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

There is a figure at the top of the building - Philosophy?

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Also, I don’t think Andy Foster is seeing things when he detects a whiff of the Laurentian Library inside! esp. the staircase

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Arts figure with book and pen

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Science with scroll and globe

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Dudley Public Library of 1908-9 Allegorical figures of Science and the Arts recline on a broken pediment - positively Michelangelesque! (à la the Medici tombs) Architect was George H Wenyon Sculptors probably HH Martyn & Co

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

St George and the dragon by William Bloye on Dudley Town Hall (War Memorial Tower) - late 1920s

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

A larger version by the same workshop: Stretton Sugwas tympanum, about 15 miles to the south

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Interlocking two-strand circles on the c12 capital of the west doorway at Leominster Priory For a bonus point - can you spot Samson and the lion?

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

fine surprise in the suburbs of Dudley - a mid-12th century tympanum at St Peter, Pedmore Christ in Majesty surrounded by the Evangelists. St Matthew holds the mandorla in place (top-right) a rather far-flung example of the Herefordshire school of carving

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Minton tiles around the font at Holy Trinity, Hartshill (Stoke-on-Trent)

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Come across the standard ones reasonably often, such as below at Rodington, Shropshire I don’t think I’ve ever seen the deluxe top of the line gold version anywhere else!

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Yes, they’re a nice survival, aren’t they? There are a few photos of it before the reordering & they can be seen I didn’t know it when visiting North Walsham, but the large arch at the east end is a motif that Bower Norris seems rather keen on Heswall and Wolverhampton

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I thought this was just fantastic, I have to say A sort of cross between Adrian Gilbert Scott (e.g. Poplar) & F X Velarde. Interior a lovely warm cream colour due to unpainted render I think the best I’ve ever seen by him (and that includes Rochdale)

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Now to Bower Norris’s much later St John Fisher, West Heath - 1964 énorme!

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Some more! Station(s) of the cross by Benjamin Creswick, dated 1920-9

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Now that’s more like it! felt much more cavernous than this photo makes it look (mural of Resurrection in apse by Neil Harvey, 2000 - I quite liked it)

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Our Lady & St Brigid, Northfield by Bower Norris - 1936 A sort of minimalist Italian Romanesque (with a striking campanile) a very squeezed site but still a winner

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Got in too. Quite plain but nice original ceiling. A little disappointing as some of his interiors can be tip-top. The ailes added in the 60s, apparently by Sandy & Norris (according to Taking Stock). Surprising

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

A fine day to go out hunting some Ernest Bower Norris churches in the Black Country Holy Name of Jesus, Great Barr - 1938 typical sharp Art Deco detailing at the west end (which faces the busy Birmingham Road) reminds one of his slightly earlier church at North Walsham

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Good isn’t it? I was expecting it to look totally daft inside, but in fact it’s a rather theatrical c18 arrangement where just the IHS monogram in the reredos is backlit

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Might be the smallest east window I’ve ever seen - St Laurence, Ansley (Chancel extended by John Ludford in 1760)

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

out looking at Morris & Co. glass in Leicestershire today….

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

I’m off to Edinburgh in July so I’ll hope for decent light! think we spoke about it on here, but I visited St Mark’s, Broomhill on an unusually gloomy day. May I present, John Piper:

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

He brilliant, isn’t he? one of the best early c20 stained glass artists for me (& there is some v stiff competition!) If you’re ever in Hertfordshire may I heartily recommend a visit to Waterford. Full of glass wonderful glass by Burne-Jones, Douglas Strachan & this St Cecilia by Parsons

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

that perspex stuff can look dead ugly from the outside but I was thankful for it when visiting Catshill, Worcs recently to see the Karl Parsons work there. It was a sunny day so I was terrified of encountering the rectangles of doom but window was thankfully protected by clear plastic

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

The dreaded grilles! I encountered a bad case last week in Stourbridge with a panel by Henry Payne One prays for a cloud but it never arrives

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Whole thing The head of Christ is surely a portrait, so quite possibly that of the commemorated - Christopher Morcom (d. 1930)

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

a day off, so out I went Karl Parsons glass of 1931 at Catshill, Worcs. St Christopher carrying the Christ Child

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

JH Dearle work of 1915-16 in the south chapel

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

to St Mary, Oldswinford next A look back from the elaborate 1890s chancel at the wonderful pre-Ecclesiological nave of the early 1840s Quite the contrast & that roof!

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Glass by Henry Payne at St Thomas, Stourbridge (left pic) and because I’ve been thinking about comparions recently, here is his window at St Agnes, Moseley commemorating William Harrison Colmore (d. 1907) that I saw a few years ago

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Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

An unplanned day in Worcestershire (so no itinerary!) first stop a rather impressive early Georgian church- St Thomas, Stourbridge (1728-36) The baroque east end is an 1889-90 addition, but I rather like it Well preserved interior recalls Wren’s St James, Piccadilly (but a fair bit more austere)