The East Window
Fig 6: The East Window.
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The east window, of perpendicular style, has five lights with cinquefoil heads and tracery. Each light has six rectangular panels of slightly varying size, and uneven alignment across the window, with each panel separated by a saddle bar. All the glass with the exception of the Peckitt panels are from the 15th or 16th centuries. Who made the original glass is not entirely known, though Marks throws a few names into the hat without a firm conclusion.1
The subject matter is:
Excluding the tracery, of the thirty main panels, only eleven have figurative subjects. Christ in majesty sits in the centre panel, flanked on each side by mitred bishops. The top row has four demi-angels, two to each side of the arms of Queen Elizabeth I. Below the bishops there are two panels with multiple heads; to the left a group of saints with (possibly) Christ at the top centre, and to the right, another group of saints and monarchs. Seven of the main panels are given up to armorial shields of local worthies, with two further shields at the top of the far left and far right lights. The other eight panels are filled with fragments of coloured glass arranged in a geometric mosaic of small fragments that were executed by William Peckitt during the 1759 installation. The figures seem to be missing their original backgrounds, and have been inserted into the panels surrounded by small leaded quarries that are likely to have been made by Peckitt. The figurative panels have been framed with small fragments of glass, probably original, some containing snippets of gothic script, little of which is intelligible.
The tracery, with the exception of the top central quatrefoil opening and the two central lights, which contain patterned glass and an annunciation scene respectively, contains armorial shields. For a more detailed description of the coats of arms in the east and aisle windows click here or on the button below.
William Peckitt (1731 – 14 Oct 1795) was a glass painter and stained glass maker whose workshop was based in York. He was a leading artisan of the art during the Georgian period, and is credited with keeping the English craft alive during the eighteenth century at a time when very little was being spent on church building or renovation in provincial England. During Peckitt’s time, the medieval art of manufacturing stained glass had been almost entirely lost in England, and he was a pioneer in experimenting with new techniques such as blending “coloured and stained glass”. Although technically expert, his draughtsmanship was criticised as, “[having] little merit in either design or colour.” This is a criticism that might rightly be levelled at him for his own work in St Martins, which is, to say the least, “basic”.
South Chancel 1
The three light transomed window, like the east, is filled with glass from Tattershall and geometric patterns by William Peckitt. The subject matter is: Top row (left to right): A demi angel: Two golden haired angels seemingly in conversation, though likely to have been originally from two separate scenes or much further separated in the same scene, with two angels playing wind instruments above: A demi angel.
In the centre of the second row from the top: 5 portraits of men, two saints to the top of the panel, a king centred, and two behatted men at the bottom. The latter two portraits have a distinctly Flemish look to them.
Below the transom are three standing figures. To the left, a haloed king holding a sceptre (Edmund?), in the centre a haloed figure holding an axe (possibly the Apostle Thomas), and right a saint wearing a hat and holding a book.
South Chapel East Window
The three light transomed window, is similar in style to the windows in the south chancel, being of six lights in columns of three separated by a transom. In the tracery, two haloed heads, one wearing an ornate crown, or possibly a tiered mitre (St Gregory?). In the top row two demi angels between a 16th century shield of Clinton quartering Saye within garter. Below that the arms of Lord Cromwell of Tattershall. For more on the arms in the windows on the south side click here. Below the Cromwell Arms are four heads which like those in the south chancel 1 window have a distinct Flemish feel. It may well be that all these were part of the same scene in Tattershall.
Below the transom are three standing figures. Left: A bishop with pallium which could be that of Canterbury and may depict Thomas Beckett. In the centre a female saint, and to the right another hieratic saint holding a crozier. Below the female saint the head of another saint.