Tom Denny

Since lockdown eased and I am able to travel again, I have embarked on a very personal pilgrimage. In the past I have travelled with groups or a few friends on pilgrimages to Lourdes. And in the Jubilee year, 2000, I went on a pilgrimage with my late husband to Rome. But this is an entirely different sort of pilgrimage. My focus is to visit all of the chapels, churches, cathedrals and abbeys for which Tom Denny has created stained-glass windows.

A pilgrimage is simply a journey to a Holy place. But we often discover our true selves on the journey, and go home refreshed, restored, and with a renewed sense of purpose and meaning in our lives. So, I guess I am trying subconsciously to find new meaning and purpose for my life since being widowed.

I’m not going to write a learned piece about stained-glass or compare the merits or otherwise of ancient versus modern, as that has been done elsewhere. We know that the purpose of the earliest stained-glass windows was to portray the Gospel stories, and lives of the Saints, for people who did not have access to a Bible or religious texts. They were informative, telling the churchgoing viewer what to believe. They are undoubtedly exquisite works of art. But I do not find them as mesmerising and deeply spiritual as Tom Denny’s windows. His seem to be reflective (apologies for the pun) rather than instructive. They show what is and ask you for your response.

I have loved his work since I first saw his depiction of Jesus showing his wounded hands to doubting Thomas. The image, created in 1992 in Gloucester Cathedral, is stunning. From a distance there is just a vast area of azure blue glass. But when you closely study the windows, you begin to see the details. The sun and moon presiding over the elements; the trees, animals and birds. And then, hidden but in plain sight, Jesus. He is looking out from the window at me with his hands open as if to say, “Here I am. This is me. I have given my all for you and all of humankind. Now go and do the same!” That impression will never leave me.

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So, I have embarked on my pilgrimage to see and learn more. I was delighted to discover that there are many more of Tom Denny’s windows within a couple of hours drive of my home. First, I visited Hereford Cathedral where the windows celebrate the life of Thomas Traherne. I knew nothing of this 17^th century mystic priest and poet. I have since discovered that Traherne was a brilliant man and a philosopher, way ahead of his time. His wisdom is poured into his astonishing prose, Centuries of Meditations. Traherne believed that the presence of God is everywhere and that we are called to sense it every day. His parish was in Credenhill, a Herefordshire village surrounded by the beauty of the natural world.

I have realised that Tom Denny really gets to the heart of a place or person before he embarks on the creating a window. So, all of this beauty is reflected in the details in Tom Denny’s windows. There are children, old people, animals, birds, butterflies and insects, trees, hills and fields, as well as the city of Hereford. All are bathed in the light coming from the cross.

Traherne called young children ‘moving jewels’ ~ isn’t that just lovely?

I have copied some details from Tom Denny’s book, Glory, Azure & Gold as the windows are quite high and my photos don’t show the detail.

This week I continued my pilgrimage with a trip to the Priory Church in Great Malvern. This was a revelation again. Firstly, Malvern is a beautiful town set in glorious lush countryside surrounding the Malvern Hills. There are gorgeous parks with some truly ancient trees and beautiful lakes and springs. Indeed the town has been famous for its spring water since 1622. The town is quite a challenge for me as it is so hilly and I get quite breathless since I had Covid. But I persevered and am so glad I did. The priory itself was founded by the Benedictine monk, St Aldwin in 1085. It was a monastery for 450 years until it was at risk of dissolution. In 1541 the local people raised £20 to save it for the town. Since then it has been a parish church. It still has an original stone font from Norman times and the 15th century Nave is built on the original columns from 1085. It also has a treasured collection of stained glass windows dating back to mediaeval times. They depict old testament scenes including the Creation, and the lives of Noah, Abraham and Moses. But of course I came to see the fabulous Denny Millennium windows. These were installed in 2004. They were based on Psalm 36 which explores the nature of God. The windows express the theme through images from nature: including heavens, clouds, mountains, oceans, wings, fountains and light. There are also people in the windows so typical of those I have seen in other Denny windows. They are simple, rustic representations yet with faces and movement full of personality. There is also a magnificent depiction of a stag, which to me represents the power and glory of God. Here are some of my photos. But do scroll to the end to see my favourites!

This last image is one that will stay with me. There are countless ways to interpret the foot seemingly walking out of the window. Denny quotes, “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings…” (Nahum 1.15). Being a long time member of the WI it also reminds me of the hymn Jerusalem: “And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountains green?”

But over all that it reminds me most of the feeling I got when I first saw the original painting by Rembrandt of The Return of the Prodigal Son. I was visiting the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia in 2003. The Hermitage is huge and there are many floors and corridors to explore. On one of the corridors there were 2 enormous panelled doors which were closed. On opening them I was confronted by the painting which was immediately facing the doors and took up the whole wall. The painting is 81/2 feet tall and the figures are life size! The impression I got, which was of course cleverly planned, was that I was stepping into the painting ~ I was the returning prodigal son and the face of the father was lit up with love for me! Rembrandt has brilliantly portrayed the son with one shoe falling off and his bare foot cracked and sore, to represent the journey, hardship and defeat he has suffered. I have to say the painting filled me with such emotion that it made me cry.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)

If you are still with me on this exceptionally long blogpost, I apologise but hope it is worth it. At the East end of the priory church was a very unexpected find. There is a display about C S Lewis’s book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lewis spent much of his childhood in Malvern, not all of it happy apparently, and went to Malvern school. He often attended services at the priory. It is noted that as he left via the East porch he would have seen the light streaming through the great east window as if there was another world beyond. So, the porch is believed to be the inspiration for the wardrobe. I have to say that seeing the porch as I did on a lovely sunny day, this seems highly plausible. So there is a carving of a lion’s head and a replica gas lamp behind the porch. Another minor detail I discovered is that the word Aslan, which is the name of the lion in the 7 books in the Chronicles of Narnia series, is derived from the Turkish word for lion.

To learn more about the work of Tom Denny check out his website https://www.thomasdenny.co.uk

In Gloucester Cathedral there is a new stained glass window created by Tom Denny, which is a memorial to the Gloucestershire poet, Ivor Gurney. Like Will Harvey, whom I have written about before, he was a pupil and chorister at the Cathedral school before joining the Gloucestershire Regiment to serve in the First World War. Indeed, they were great friends. Gurney was a talented musician firstly, but in the thick of war, poetry became his creative outlet. Like Will Harvey he survived the war but was drastically changed by it. So much so that his fragile mental health was totally destroyed, and he spent many years in a mental asylum where he eventually died before he was 50. Gurney is buried at Twigworth, where his gravestone commemorates him as ‘poet composer of the Severn and Somme’.

Gurney’s poetry is beautiful and reflects his love for the Cotswolds, the countryside and the beauty of nature. I’d like to share 2 of them with you that touch me deeply for different reasons.

Firstly, To His Love which is a poem thought to be written by Ivor Gurney when he thought his friend Will Harvey had been killed.

To His Love’

He’s gone, and all our plans
Are useless indeed.
We’ll walk no more on Cotswolds
Where the sheep feed
Quietly and take no heed.

His body that was so quick
Is not as you
Knew it, on Severn River
Under the blue
Driving our small boat through.

You would not know him now…
But still he died
Nobly, so cover him over
With violets of pride
Purple from Severn side.

Cover him, cover him soon!
And with thick-set
Masses of memoried flowers-
Hide that red wet
Thing I must somehow forget.

The second is The Bugle, written after Gurney returned from the war, a sadder and wiser man. I include it as my grandfather was a bugler in WW1, and also because it speaks to me loudly of how ordinary life and commerce still goes on while soldiers suffer and die ‘out of sight, and out of mind.’

The Bugle

High over London
Victory floats
And high, high, high,
Harsh bugle notes
Rend and embronze the air.
Triumph is there
With sombre sunbeams mixed of Autumn rare.
Over and over the loud brass makes its cry,
Summons to exultancy
Of past in Victory.
Yet in the grey street women void of grace
Chatter of trifles,
Hurry to barter, wander aimlessly
The heedless town,
Men lose their souls in care of business,
As men had not been mown
Like corn swathes East of Ypres or the Somme
Never again home
Or beauty most beloved to see, for that
London Town might still be busy at
Its sordid cares
Traffic of wares.
O Town, O Town
In soldiers’ faces one might see the fear
That once again they should be called to bear
Arms, and to save England from her own.

There are many learned websites with information about Ivor Gurney, but my wish today is simply to share the beauty and poignancy of the new window and explain a little of its background.

There are 8 lights or panes overall and each reflects something from the life and writing of Ivor Gurney. The notes are a precis of those that appear in the Cathedral by the window.

Light 1 ~ Glimmering Dusk ~ a figure walks at dusk in a Vale landscape. there are dark pools of rain on the white road and May Hill can be seen in the distance.

Light 2 ~ The Stone Breaker ~ In Flanders a chance encounter with some road menders reminds Gurney of a much earlier meeting (“Oh years ago and near forgot”), in the fresh beauty of a summer’s early morning, in a landscape of Vale orchards.

Light 3 ~ Brimscombe ~ Gurney remembers a night-time walk through the fir trees of the steep-sided Brimscombe valley near Stroud. The “pure clemency” of the moment enables him to forget the “blackness and pain” of France.

Light 4 ~ Severn Meadows ~This was written in March 1917 at Caulaincourt. As the sun sets over Severn meadows, a figure, in the shadow of a willow, looks back at the river and the willows.

Light 5 ~ Pain ~ Gurney recalls the grey-white Somme battlefield.

“Pain, pain continual; pain unending;….

Grey monotony lending

Weight to the grey skies, grey mud where goes

An army of grey bedraggled scarecrows in rows

Careless at last of cruellest Fate-sending.

Seeing pitiful eyes of men foredone,

Or horses shot, too tired to merely stir,

Dying in shell-holes both, slain by the mud.

…………………………………….

The amazed heart cries out to God.

Light 6 ~ To His Love ~ Probably drafted on the Somme battlefield, Gurney reacts to the news (false as it turns out) that his great friend, the poet Will Harvey, is presumed killed. A couple walk on the Cotswold hills as their dead friend lies among the violets.

Light 7 ~ To God ~ In the intense suffering from mental illness, surely aggravated by his experiences on the battlefields, Gurney cries out for death, “I am praying for death, death, death”.

Light 8 ~ Song and Pain ~ A more optimistic end to the window as a figure emerges from an understanding of pain to enter “The House of Joy”.

As I stood and gazed at these incredibly beautiful but harrowing windows, there were people around me moved to tears by what Gurney had seen and suffered. Tom Denny is a wonderful artist. He has captured and honoured Gurney’s genius, his love of Gloucestershire, and his suffering in that dreadful war and in his mental distress.

http://wp.me/p2gGsd-153

https://wordpress.com/post/heavenhappens.me/4977

http://www.ivorgurney.org.uk/biography.htm

http://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/to-his-love-ivor-gurney/