St Margaret's Church, Downham

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit St Margaret's Downham for the first time. Set on a hill, with great views from its extensive churchyard, the church is dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch - slayer of dragons and patron saint of child bearing. Devotion to this saint became popular between 1200 and 1300 and there are some 80 churches sharing this dedication from that period.

The oldest part of the present building is the redbrick tower that dates from around 1470. The main part of the church, the nave, was rebuilt in the nineteenth century using much of the material from the thirteenth century building. In March 1977 the building was gutted by fire following an arson attack but has been restored with a bright, modern interior and comfortable chairs. New stained glass was commissioned following the fire from Jan Gray (East window and Prebble window) and Valerie Green (Calton window).

One artefact to survive the fire is a carving of St Margaret of Antioch that originally occupied a niche above the porch. This is now in the nave and is probably the work of Gwynneth Holt. Various biographies of Holy mention a work by her at St Margaret's - https://artuk.org/discover/artists/holt-gwynneth-19091995 - and this piece is certainly in her style. 

Holt and her husband, the sculptor Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones, lived at Broomfield around the same time as another artist, Rosemary Rutherford, who was the daughter of the Rector at Broomfield Parish Church. All three have work in churches within the Diocese. Holt's limewood rood figures of Christ, the Virgin and St John are at All Saints Stock. My post about Holt's life and work can be read at https://joninbetween.blogspot.com/2024/12/all-saints-stock-harvard-gwynneth-holt.html. Broomfield Parish Church has an exhibition on the work of Rutherford and is preparing a booklet about the work of Holt and Huxley-Jones. My poem 'Broomfield', part of my 'Five Trios' series, reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations. For more on the artists of Broomfield, all of whom are commemorated there with blue plaques, see here, here, here, here and here.

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Andrew Rumsey - O Lazarus.

Rosemary Rutherford: East Window at St Peter's Nevendon

On Sunday I led my first service at St Peter's Nevendon, which has a significant - being her first - stained glass window by Rosemary Rutherford. My sermon from this service on the Good Samaritan can be read here.

The East Window at St Peter’s Nevendon is an important stained glass window by Rosemary Rutherford. It illustrates the Transfiguration with the central figure being Christ flanked by Moses on the left and Elijah on the right. St Peter kneels in the centre with St John to the left and his brother St James to the right.

Rutherford studied art in Chelmsford and at the Slade in London in the 1930s. She also trained in the art of true fresco. She was a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Red Cross nurse during the second world war and created a large portfolio of sketches and paintings of all she observed in hospitals, both at home and in Sri Lanka.

She learnt stained glass making and created 40 windows, including four in Broomfield church, where her father was Rector, to replace those shattered by bombing. She was deeply religious and her spirituality guided her artworks. Her fresco at Broomfield church shows ‘Christ Stilling the Storm’ and was surely intended to give people hope during the frightening turmoil of wartime.

Rutherford is perhaps most widely known for her stained glass windows, mostly in churches, throughout East Anglia and further afield from Yorkshire to Sussex and even in New Zealand. The exhibition features a montage of many of her windows showing her versatility of style and subject. Her love of bright, bold colours is evident both in the east window of Broomfield church, in her earlier figurative designs and in the more abstract compositions at Boxford and in windows made posthumously to her designs at Hinderclay in Suffolk.

Project Rutherford at St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield centres on the preservation and conservation of Rutherford’s special mural in the Norman round tower, St Mary’s unique 20th century fresco. Its protection within the tower and its promotion has involved replacement of the spire shingles, repair of the spire’s wooden framework, repointing of the round tower, conservation of the fresco itself and outreach to all church users and to the wider community in bringing the fresco, and Rosemary Rutherford, ‘out into the open’.

To bring the life and works of this remarkable but largely forgotten artist to the attention of the wider community, a permanent exhibition was opened in 2023. This exhibition summarises Rosemary’s life and extraordinary artistic achievements. Models reveal how fresco and stained glass are made. Some of her remarkable range of drawings and paintings are shown, including wartime artwork and flower paintings. Her spiritual, caring nature and brilliant artistry shine through.

This permanent exhibition can be viewed during church opening times, currently Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30 to 12:30 and after Sunday services.

Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. My poem 'Broomfield', part of my 'Five Trios' series, reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

For more on the artists of Broomfield, all of whom are commemorated there with blue plaques, see here, here, here, here and here.

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Benjamin Britten - A Boy Was Born.

St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield: Thomas Huxley-Jones and Gwynneth Holt

Today, I gave a talk at Broomfield Parish Church about Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones and Gwynneth Holt, two of the Broomfield artists who, along with Rosemary Rutherford, created artworks for many churches in the area covered by the Diocese of Chelmsford in the twentieth century. 

Some of the works I included in the talk were the following:

Given the amount of work by the Broomfield artists within the area covered by the Diocese of Chelmsford, I suggested that it might be possible to create an art trail around the Diocese as a way to highlight their contribution to the churches of the Diocese. Such a trail would begin at Broomfield Parish Church with the artworks the, the graves of Rutherford, Huxley-Jones and Holt in the churchyard, and the wonderful Rutherford exhibition, but would then take those following the trail around the Diocese to demonstrate the importance to the churches of the Diocese of these three Broomfield artists.  

Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. My poem 'Broomfield', part of my 'Five Trios' series, reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

For more on the artists of Broomfield, all of whom are commemorated there with blue plaques, see here, here, here, here and here.

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Bono, The Edge & Friends - Invisible.

Broomfield artists talk: Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones and Gwynneth Holt

 

Tomorrow, I am speaking at Broomfield Parish Church about Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones and Gwynneth Holt, two of the Broomfield artists whose work features in many churches within the Diocese of Chelmsford. Both were significant artists whose work would benefit from rediscovery. Find out more at 2.00 pm tomorrow.

This talk is a Project Rutherford talk. Project Rutherford promotes the life and works of the artist Rosemary Rutherford through an exhibition, talks and trails.

https://stmarybroomfield.org/rutherford-project/

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John Taverner - Ikon Of Light.

Five Trios

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

The poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

The series draws inspiration from T.S. Eliot's 'Four Quartets' and, in common, with the 'Thin Places and Sacred Spaces' anthology reflects on the experience of feeling the touch of eternity in art, nature, silence, or sacred architecture. The ‘thin place’ is a Celtic term, originally indicating a specific geographical location where the veil between heaven and earth seems exceptionally thin or lifted altogether. Barking, Bradwell, Broomfield, Pleshey and Runwell are all places in the Diocese of Chelmsford where I have had that experience and where heaven and earth, past, present and future seem to be intermingled.

'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. My other posts about St Margaret's Barking can be found here, here, here, and here. See also here and here.

'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. My previous posts about Bradwell and the Othona Community can be found here and here.

Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations. For more on the artists of Broomfield, all of whom are commemorated there with blue plaques, see here, here, here, here and here.

'Pleshey' celebrates the Diocesan Retreat House at Pleshey in Essex and the legacy of Evelyn Underhill as a retreat director. My posts about Pleshey can be found here and my posts about Evelyn Underhill here. My poem can also be found on the Diocesan Retreat House website here.

'Runwell' takes the reader on a visit to St Mary's Runwell, while also reflecting on the spirituality of the space plus its history and legends. This poem has also been included in the Amethyst Press anthology, 'Thin Places and Sacred Spaces',

I am giving a reading of the five poems accompanied by photographs at St Andrew's Wickford on Friday 31 January at 7.00 pm and am also giving a talk at St Mary with St Leonard Broomfield about two of the Broomfield artists on Saturday 8 February at 2.00 pm.

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Billy Bragg - A13, Trunk Road To The Sea.