St John the Evangelist
detail from The Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary, St John, St Michael and St Peter

Photo © Martin Crampin larger image

1546 Figures set across five lights. Crucifixion with Mary and John flanked by Michael, who wields a sword as he stands over a red dragon, and Peter, holding a key and a book. Mary is shown with tears. A skull and some bones are shown at the foot of the cross, and beneath the figures of Mary and John. technique: stained glass restorer: Burlison & Grylls Church of St Mary, Cilcain, Flintshire east wall of the chancel The date of 1546 was noted on the window by Stephen Glynne, visiting in the mid-nineteenth century, although this date could not be found on the glass by about 1900. However there are inscriptions on the glass of some restoration work by John Bill (leading, 1776), Edward Bill (1837), and the releading of all the glass by Burlison & Grylls in 1888. Charles Bill, presumably a relation of John Bill and Edward Bill, worked on the glass not far away at Treuddyn in 1763 and 1775. The figure of Mary closes resembles another figure of Mary, also originally thought to be from a Crucifixion scene, at the Church of St Mary, Disley (Cheshire), dating either from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. This could support the possibility of a Chester workshop being responsible for glass at both churches.  (ObjectID=2210 ImageID=6282) Original File Name=Cilcain_DSC1547.jpg

This artwork is indexed under the following main subject(s):
for other works containing these subjects please click on the links.

• Crucified Christ with Mary and John on either side of the cross; Holy Rood  [John 19:25-27]
• the apostle Peter, first bishop of Rome 
• the Archangel Michael 

Martin Crampin, Stained Glass from Welsh Churches (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2014), pp. 8, 45, 47.

Peter Lord, The Visual Culture of Wales: Medieval Vision (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), p. 209.

Mostyn Lewis, Stained Glass in North Wales up to 1850 (Altrincham: John Sherratt and Son Ltd, 1970), p. 32.

T. J. Hughes, Wales's Best One Hundred Churches (Bridgend: Seren, 2006), pp. 92-4.

Simpson Frank, 'Cilcain and its Parish Church' Flintshire Historical Society Publications, vol. 2 (1912), pp. 32–3.

Edward Hubbard, The Buildings of Wales: Clwyd (Harmondsworth/Cardiff: Penguin/University of Wales Press, 1986), p. 337.

Photo © Martin Crampin