I was delighted to read about the glass exhibition at London’s Two Temple Place, and have every intention of seeing it (“Glass at the cutting edge”, Design, House & Home, January 20). As Malaika Byng observes, Two Temple Place itself has some pretty remarkable stained glass, and its exhibitions are always excellent.
The article mentions the long history of glassmaking in Sunderland, and also the contribution made by European artists to British glassmaking, and cites the example of the 19th-century Frenchman Alphonse Lechevrel.
Much earlier than that, it was French glassmakers who re-established the skills that had been lost with the departure of Roman rule. Benedict Biscop brought glaziers to what is now Sunderland, for the founding in 674 CE of the abbey of Monkwearmouth. The king was so pleased that he gave Biscop land at Jarrow for a sister monastery, again employing continental glassmakers. Fragments of this
7th-century glass have been found at St Peter’s Church in Monkwearmouth. This was the home and place of work of the Venerable Bede, whose importance in English history is foundational.
Byng mentions the links between glassmaking and shipbuilding in Sunderland. This is why, when shipbuilding ceased, the site beside St Peter’s was chosen to build the National Glass Centre, which was opened by Prince Charles — as he then was — in 1998.
That centre is now due to be demolished like the shipyards before it, another exercise in “levelling up” that threatens to come to nothing.
As Byng also notes, stained glass window-making and mouth-blown sheet-glass (needed for stained glass windows) are on the red list — critically endangered or even extinct — of the Heritage Crafts Association. Perhaps this London show will give encouragement to those who want to save both the National Glass Centre and the crafts which are practised there.
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hampshire, UK
