Sunday, 22-10-23: part two

Morning, everyone.  For once, the skies are beautifully clear and when I went out to the shed for my provisions, the stars were so beautifully bright.  Yes, it felt chilly, bit should be lovely and sunny which would be a real blessing after so many dull and dismal days.

Today's blog is the second part of the trip to Ely and nearby villages.

The afternoon of the coach trip focused on the work of Rosemary Rutherford.

Rosemary was a British artist, notable for her paintings and stained glass designs.  She has a local connection because she spent some of her childhood in Broomfield which is one of the village suburbs of Chelmsford and just five minutes' drive away from me, her father being the church rector.  She lived from 1912 to 1972.

She designed a number of stained glass windows for churches in Essex and Suffolk.

I was interested to see that there's an unveiling of a Blue Plaque to her in November, at Broomfield Church, followed by a talk on 'The War Art of Rosemary Rutherford'.  I might go to that.
There's also an exhibition of her life and works on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, also at the church.  Interesting; I had no idea.

The purpose of the afternoon was to visit a couple of Suffolk churches that showed her work,  St Mary's Church, Hinderclay, and St Mary the Virgin, Walsham-le-Willows, where her brother was the local vicar and where she had a studio.

Sue wrote a lovely account of St Mary's, Hinderclay, in 2019 and here's a link to it.  Do go take a look - it is so interesting.  I'm really just showing the windows.

https://attheendofasuffolklane.blogspot.com/2019/10/hinderclay-st-mary.html

And here's a link to the church site:

http://www.hinderclaychurch.org.uk/

It's a lovely old church, small but with a large tower and an active bell ringing group by the looks of things.

Yes, we had sunshine.  It was lovely.

I had to photo this - it made me laugh.

All nicely and neatly looped up.

I love the sound of church bells!  It is so English Sunday to me.

On to the stained glass.

The style is modern but very accessible and I liked them very much but the prevailing impact was one of glorious light and colour, even before the sun came out.
It's quite a dark little church really but the west side was an absolute riot of colour, a really happy place.

Sue's photos are very much better - please do take a look.

(couldn't get a good one of this - I did try)

They were wonderful, even with a really cloudy sky that made the rest of the church quite dark but then the sun came out and the reflections on the walls were- just fantastic.  We all gasped.

Then we went on to St Mary the Virgin, Walsham le Willows.

Again, Sue visited this church and blogged about it - again, go take a look as her photos are fantastic and there's loads of information about everything.

https://attheendofasuffolklane.blogspot.com/2019/04/walsham-le-willows-church.html

And the church site:

https://www.walsham-le-willows.org/amenities/st-marys-parish-church/

Follow the 'Norfolk Odyssey' link for some lovely photos.

The window we were there to see was the memorial window for Rosemary, based on designs from her workbook and executed by her vicar brother and Roly Haddon.

I took some close ups of the various flowers and that's what I will show here - they're beautiful.

This is the complete window - even in the cloud and gloom (the sun had gone by then), it shone.

There are other churches that have her work.  I believe this coach trip was the second because people wanted to see more so I'm not sure if there will be another one but if there is, count me in.  If not - well, Suffolk is not so far away and maybe it's a good excuse for a few nights in a B&B or similar.

Back to the usual tomorrow and thank you for reading.