Rose Window, South Transept

Both the transepts of St Mildred, Whippingham, Isle of Wight, have rose windows inspired by the rose windows at Notre Dame in Paris (see Jenkins 304). According to one source, the Queen had greatly admired the originals on a visit to Paris in 1856, and Prince Albert had promised her two of her very own ("Whippingham"). This must have added to the Continental atmosphere of the church, as noted by a contributor to The Church Builder in 1863 (qtd. in Turner). The trefoils at the outer rim, and the stencilling on the surrounding wall, make both the rose windows very attractive. Writing about the stained glass in the church, David Lloyd and Nikolaus Pevsner say, "Much by Hardman and very good, e.g. the E window, and the patterned windows in the transepts" (294).

Lower transept windows showing symbols of the Evangelists

These three windows show, from left to right, St Mark as a winged lion (in its full context), St Luke as a winged ox, and St John as an eagle.

St Mark and St Luke are in the south transept, under the rose window shown above; St Matthew (not shown here) and St John are in the north transept.

Photographs, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Related Material

Bibliography

Jenkins, Simon. England's Thousand Best Churches. Rev. ed. London: Allen Lane, 2004.

Turner, Michael. "Humbert, Albert Jenkins (1821-1877." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 1 October 2017.

"Whippingham: St Mildred's Church.". Wootton Bridge Historical. Web. 1 October 2017.


Created 1 October 2017