Monday, 13 October 2025
Hebden Bridge Local History Society Report
St James's Church - A story of
Victorian stained glass
Speaker: Dave Smalley
Scotland Yard, the Titanic, Rochdale Town Hall… and St James's Church, Hebden Bridge: how did a church in a small town like Hebden Bridge come to be listed in such illustrious company? As Dave Smalley told a meeting of Hebden Bridge Local History Society, the answer lies in its wonderful array of stained glass windows and their illustrious designers and craftsmen.
In the late 19th century the clergy and congregation of St James's embarked at great cost on a programme of restoration including windows by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne, one of the best in the business.
St James's was just one of the hundreds of churches being built or restored in the 1870s. This boom of church building arose from a fear that the Anglican Church was being side-lined as the Non-conformist chapels became more dominant in people's lives and in the landscape. Population moves from country to town, driven by industrialisation, had left many places without a nearby church, and attendances were falling.
An added complication was the deep and often bitter theological differences in the Church, which led different clergy to want very different things in the design of the church building. There was a middle 'broad' church, but at the extremes was mutual suspicion. For the 'low', church the essence was the sermon, the scriptures and therefore the pulpit. 'High' churchmen valued the rituals and symbols of the mysteries of their faith, with a focus on the altar, set in a theatrically dramatic space, with rich colourful hangings and illuminated by decorative stained glass windows.
At St James's, the minister George Sowden, a high church man, was a driving force to restore the church, with a new chancel and changes which included the very best stained glass windows. Somehow he guided his congregation to support the costly project, selecting Richard Norman Shaw, a prominent architect to take charge. It was he who brought in the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne.
The three men each brought a different skill to the making of stained glass, emulating the sparkle of Medieval glass. There were some constraints – the subjects were biblical, and the shape of the long windows precluded any landscapes. Artist Robert Turnill Bayne produced the paintings. James Butler did the skilful and crucial job of designing the lead framework that held the glass and contributed so much to its final success. John Aldam Heaton was the colour man – selecting the colours for the design which would be fired into the glass. The effects were brilliant, with fluid movements and glowing colours. Inconsistences in the surface produced swirls and sparkles of light.
Such highly skilled craftsmen and the complexity of the technique did not come cheap, but guided by Sowden, over a period of years, the congregation raised enough to pay for a complete scheme. The design team themselves contributed, with Norman Shaw making a gift of money, and Heaton's wife herself financing a window. It was finally decided to raise the money by encouraging people to pay for Memorial windows, marking the life and loss of their relatives. What we have is a beautiful design and a social record.
Hebden Bridge Local History Society meets from September until April on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at Hebden Royd Methodist Church, starting at 7.30 pm. Details of the History Society talks programme, publications and of archive opening times are available on the "What's on" section of the HebWeb, on the History website and you can also follow the History Society Facebook page.
With thanks to Sheila Graham for this report
See previous reports in the HebWeb History section