Summary. There is no medieval glass; all was lost in the Civil War. It was thought some fragments were found and added to a window in St Michael’s Chapel, but they are more likely to be fragments from the 16th century Herkenrode collection.
Medieval
stained glass is coloured and painted glass dated from 10th-century to around
1500 and there is none at Lichfield. Only a small number of original stained
windows has survived in England[1]
and all the original medieval Lichfield cathedral glass was destroyed in the iconoclasm
of the Civil War, 1643. Pikemen probably shattered the lower windows and musket
and cannon balls the upper windows. It was once thought fragments of early
glass were kept and later placed in a window in St Michael’s Chapel within the
south Transept. There are 12 small fragments surrounded by coloured glass. However, they are more
likely to be fragments left over from the Herkenrode collection, 1532–39[2]. The top pair of fragments, a moon and sun,
are possibly earlier (15th-century?),[3]
though could also have been part of a now missing Herkenrode crucifixion scene[4]
representing the eclipse at the time of death.[5]
There is a small roundel as part of a stained-glass window in the cathedral of
St Steven, Bourges, France, dated 1210–15, showing a sun and moon above the
arms of the cross. Symbolising the eclipse at the time of death was a common
motif in the 13th-century. There is a window at Hampton Court showing this
motif.
Window
containing fragments of medieval glass, a little hidden by colours of the South
Staffordshire regiment.
 |
| Moon and Sun fragments.The moon fragment might have been repaired and altered. |
Possible dove fragment.
 |
| Small clenched hand fragment. |
Leaf
fragment.
[1]
The oldest remaining glass in its original place in England survives in
Canterbury Cathedral where it was placed in 1184. It is the Tree of Jesse
Window. There are more examples of original glass in Wells Cathedral, York
Minster and Westminster Abbey.
[2]
H. Snowden Ward, Lichfield and its Cathedral: a brief history and guide. (London:
1892), 51.
[3]
H. and P. Scaife, The stained glass of Lichfield Cathedral, Cathedral
publication (2009) describes the sun and moon fragments as medieval glass.
[4]
I. Lecocq and Y. Vanden Bemden, The stained glass of Herkenrode Abbey, (Oxford:
2021), 342–3 suggested this could be the case. Unfortunately, the fragments
were not analysed.
[5]
There is a paradox. The Herkenrode glass is unusual in not having a crucifixion
scene, so a sun and moon fragment either shows this scene was lost with only
bits retained or the sun and moon is from elsewhere.