Its subject is the town of Cheadle itself. It must be unique in that it is a piece of church glass that shows, er, the other church in town as well! (In the top right-hand corner, you can just see a spire over the cottages – that’s the RC church in the town).
Both churches in Cheadle are named after St Giles, who is the patron saint of the town; and the hart/hind (or deer) in the bottom left corner refers to that. (St Giles was a hermit, whose peace was disturbed when the King of The Goths went hunting after a hind. When the king chased the hind into St Giles' cave, he found the saint had been hit by the arrow intended for the animal. Strangely. in this window, it's the hind which has been shot by the arrow.)
I know very little of Saints, though I was in a church not far from me this week and that was St Chad's. I was out this afternoon photographing some more windows at a local to me church, unusually I knew three of the makers.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that one of the stories associated with St Giles (a Frenchman apparaently) is that he rescued a doe from some hunters once.
ReplyDeleteSo that explains the arrow... I think.