Worle, Uphill and Kewstoke’s churches have been here since at least Norman times, but Weston’s equally ancient place of worship no longer exists.
It was replaced in 1824 by the current Parish Church of St John the Baptist, as part of the Georgian village’s transformation from rural backwater into genteel resort.
A few traces of the old church remain but you need to search for them.
Medieval corbels and gargoyles stare out from display shelves in the museum. The 5ft shaft of a preaching cross survives in the churchyard, though devoid of its Calvary which might have been axed in the 1600s by Puritans who didn’t much like remnants of old Catholic ways.
The font is Norman, though for decades it had lain in a neighbouring field until rescued and brought back into use in 1827. Few people spot the 15th century carved relief, or the equally old figure of a saint in a small north aisle window, but people do hear three bells which were cast in the Bristol Foundry between 1350 and 1380.
Just round the corner in Park Villas, there’s a stone window moulding said to have been ‘rescued’ and reused when the old church was demolished. Where did the rest of the village church go? Builders’ rubble - much ended up in the foundations of Myrtle Cottage, itself long since gone and now the site of Sass Bar.
St John’s doesn’t have the aura of a large civic church; it’s wide rather than long but it does possess some exquisite modern glass which fills the entire east elevation.
Or is it modern? This window is a gem but when was it made and by whom? The glass was donated by Bishop Law who lived in the palace at Wells where he also commissioned windows. His brother was Lord Ellenborough, Viceroy of India and, rather conveniently his son was rector of St John’s. The family wasn’t hard up for a bob or two and they certainly moved in the right circles.
Bishop Law, rather like many English antiquarians of his generation, collected medieval glass by the barrow-load from Belgium and France where revolutionaries cared more for blood than church glass. It was thought the good bishop simply bought a job lot and donated part of his acquisition to St John’s.
Researchers discovered that Thomas Willement, sometime Heraldic Artist to King George IV and Artist in Stained Glass to Queen Victoria, executed the design for both St John’s and the Bishop’s Chapel in the Palace at Wells. But, did he re-use ancient glass or manufacture new glass?
The Victoria and Albert Museum states Willement “pioneered a return to the true principles of medieval craftsmanship, using lead to emphasise the main outlines of the design and to join the pieces of glass together. He introduced colour into his works by using pot metal glass, that is, glass coloured by metallic oxides. This reduced the need for enamel paints”.
The glass is therefore arguably ‘modern’ but of a quality that is said to surpass that of the 13th century: the copy better than the original.
Other works by Willement can be seen in the Temple Church London, St Luke’s Chelsea, Holy Sepulchre Cambridge, St George’s Chapel & Castle Windsor and York Minster. This man was no jobbing glazier.
Much of St John’s window was blown out in the air raid of January 1941, scattering glass far and wide. It was all retrieved and painstakingly restored in 1949 by Joseph Bell & Son, the Bristol based firm of glass artists. It’s very much as it would have been before the war.
However, academics are now reconsidering the evidence about the origins of this glass. Priscilla Frost of Oxford University Heraldry Society recently visited St John’s and pronounced the glass superb but, though Willement definitely assembled the glass, she believes most of the pieces of glass are indeed medieval European which Willement used in his design.
Whether the glass is 13th or 19th century, there’s no doubting its stunning quality nor is there any doubt that Queen Victoria’s artist designed the window.
The only way to solve whether or not Willement manufactured the glass would be to subject a sample to laboratory analysis. If it turned out to be Medieval, a tantalising question would then arise - which ransacked European church gave its treasure to Weston-super-Mare?
By John Crockford-Hawley
John's guide book on the Parish Church of St John the Baptist is on sale at the church and Weston Museum.
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