Last week we shared a fantastic blog post by Eleanor, a placement student from Newcastle University, about Anglo-Saxon herbal remedies. This week we have another blog post from one of our placement students to share with you. Grace, also from Newcastle University, was very interested in our hugely significant collection of stained glass. She decided to do some research into why our glass collection is so important. If you enjoy this blog post, look out for the poster Grace created which is on display on the noticeboards in our main corridor!
When it comes to stained glass, many people think of grand Gothic cathedrals. However, its roots in Britain go back much further – to the Anglo-Saxon period. Our collection here at Jarrow Hall boasts the first known stained glass made in Britain.
In 674 AD, Benedict Biscop brought skilled craftsmen from Gaul, or modern-day France, over to Britain. Among them were glass workers who created the stained glass windows for Benedict Biscop’s newly founded monastery of St Peter’s in Wearmouth. They taught local workers, and the first known stained glass was made in Britain. There has been a long history of glass working in the Northeast ever since.
During archaeological excavations at both St Peter’s and its sister monastery of St Paul’s here in Jarrow, archaeologists unearthed lots of fragments of stained glass. They found 302 pieces at Wearmouth and a staggering 1,827 at Jarrow. It represents the largest collection of 7th and 8th century-stained glass in Europe. This is tangible evidence of the early use of stained glass by the Anglo-Saxons. Today, part of this collection is on display in the Bede Museum for visitors to admire.
A fire somewhat damaged the surviving fragments of stained glass due to the heat. However, many of them remain intact. Some are slightly deformed, but their colour has not changed. It does not seem as if the fire affected the thickness of the glass. Lighter-coloured glass is usually thinner than the more brightly coloured pieces. Interestingly, even the thickest Anglo-Saxon glass is thinner than the window glass used in Roman architecture. This shows how production techniques changed and developed.
The Anglo-Saxons achieved such vivid colours in the glass by adding metal oxides during the production process— for example, cobalt for blue, manganese for purple, and copper for green. This allowed glassmakers to create bright, vivid colours.
They used this colourful stained glass to create designs and artwork within the windows. These could be patterns or representations of scenes or narratives – very often stained glass windows depicted religious scenes. This would have been no different at Jarrow Hall. For example, renowned archaeologist Rosemary Cramp reconstructed an image of a ‘saintly figure’ from fragments of the glass found at the monastery. You can see this on display in the museum.
The stained glass fragments found at Jarrow Hall are more than just pieces of coloured glass—they are windows into the past.