Glass by Jones & Willis
Almost all of the stained glass at Steyning Parish Church was commissioned during the twentieth century and four of these windows, installed in or shortly after 1909, are the work of Jones and Willis. The company’s church furnishing workshop had been founded in Birmingham. By the mid-nineteenth century it had a London workshop in Great Russell Street where all of the company’s stained glass was manufactured under the management of Walter Willis (1849-1928). By 1899 they had the Royal Warrant and the the company remained active into the 1940s.
The window illustrated, in our north aisle, was the gift of Elizabeth Baker and the subject is Jesus being anointed by the unnamed woman at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper (as described in Mark 14:3‑11 and Matthew 26:6‑16). The citation, ‘She hath done what she could’ occurs at Mark 14:8.
A full list of the stained glass at St Andrew’s & St Cuthman’s, including the other windows by Jones and Willis, may be found on the Church Stained Glass Records website. The firm also made our St Andrew window.
The Anointing at Bethany, Jones & Willis, 1909
The text across the bottom of the two lights reads, ‘This window was bequeathed by Elizabeth Baker to the Glory of God and in loving memory of her Father and Mother James and Mary Anne Baker and of her Brother and Sisters gone before.’ Click on the image to enlarge the photograph.