Bespoke stained glass window installed at The New Room

A captivating new stained glass window, created by Devizes-based glass artist Andrew Taylor and featuring a depiction of John Wesley, has been installed at the church Wesley founded in Broadmead.

The colourful artwork has found its home in the oldest Methodist building in the world: The New Room, built in 1739. The window takes the form of a triptych – a three-panel work of art – and illustrates the remarkable life of Wesley. It was specially commissioned for the New Room’s Heritage Lottery-funded visitor centre (which opened in the summer of 2017) and has been a year in its development.

Andrew has been working with stained glass for 25 years and is an expert in designing and installing church windows, but the visitor centre is an unusual setting.

Andrew’s original A4 plan of the stained glass window. Photograph by Nathalie Schenk

“Originally it was only going to be on a little balcony behind a light-box, but I said wouldn’t it be wonderful if, when you looked up, you would see this great window with natural light, which makes a big difference,” Andrew said, as his team worked on a grey Monday afternoon to get the pieces in position in a room filled with scattered tools and the sound of echoing drills. “We did a costing on that idea and made it larger, which consequently was a lot of work, but there are so many different elements I’ve enjoyed.”

The contemporary piece covers a great scope of John Wesley’s life, such as the blazing fire at the Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire that Wesley was rescued from in 1709, to an intricately detailed figure in manacles symbolising his role in the emancipation of slaves. However, it wasn’t just the significant events of Wesley’s life that Andrew incorporated into his timeline piece.

A close-up of one of the nine panels that make up the window

“I was given a list by Methodist historian Gary Best of about 30 or 40 items he wanted in the piece, including justice scales, an ink pot, a lump of coal,” Andrew explained. “There are hidden constellations too. I plan to make a map for children to find all these hidden things.”

In the centre of the visitor centre, Andrew’s team pieced together all nine panels of glass like a jigsaw puzzle. Each part is distinct but blends into the next, something he says took a lot of time to get right: “It meant hours of finding what went where, sticking them up and laying them around, but also the pressure of  ‘am I going to finish in time?’. But here we are!”

The finished window features nine panels that tell the story of Wesley’s life

It was clear that, for Andrew, this wasn’t just another project for him. Having learned all about the stories of Wesley’s life that are depicted in his window, he was able to transform this knowledge into art, recognising the significance that a religious stained glass piece can carry. “Religion is a personal experience, but needs a framework for people to share their experiences together,” Andrew said.

“It’s really nice that one’s work has meaning for people. It’s quite traditional imagery but you know it’s going to mean a lot to the people who get it. It’s nerve-racking sometimes: you wonder if it’s going to work but I think so far the staff at The New Room have been very pleased with what they’ve seen.”

Andrew Taylor’s stained glass window depicting John Wesley’s life can be viewed in the visitor’s centre at The New Room, open Monday to Saturday 10.30am to 4pm.