THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

STAINED GLASS IN WIRRAL OLD CHURCHES
which there is any record seem to be those
in Sta, Sophia's, Constantinople, pieces of
coloured glass set in heavy leads, and
resembling the class of work used for
mosaic decoration in the same building.
This was in the vith century, and was as
far as stained glass in the East ever got,
the art henceforward developing in the
West, finding in the church, that refuge
of civilisation, the shelter it needed for its
evolution. The exact date of the oldest
stained window glass is not known, but by
the xiiith century the monks had become
very busy with this work, executing many
beautiful examples despite the poverty of
their tools.
The most marked feature of this early
glass work was the vast amount of lead
employed in the construction of the
painted windows, because each colour
for its
required a separate piece of glass
representation, as many as sixty sometimes
occurring within a square foot
of border, yet so cleverly arranged
is the leading that at a short distance
it is quite unnoticeable, and simply
serves to emphasise the pattern. It is to
be borne in mind that the leads in use in
early times, for the purpose of bringing
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