Cathedral glass collection viewable via new app

A collection of around 12,000 items of rare medieval glass, thought to have been made by one of the most important glaziers of the period, has been made viewable via a new app.

The collection is held by Coventry cathedral and represents an internationally significant collection of 15th century religious stained glass.

The fragments came from the city's cathedral, the only one destroyed in the UK during World War Two.

Reverend Canon Nitano Muller, from the cathedral, said: "It gives us a glimpse into the lives of the people in the 15th century, about 12,000 pieces of glass that we have, perhaps the largest in Britain at the moment. [It is] akin to the glass that you'd find in Westminster Abbey or Canterbury Cathedral."

The cathedral has worked with the World Monument Fund (WMF) to produce a digital archive that can be viewed through an app.

The digitisation of the 12,000 pieces is available to to see on the free Bloomberg Connects app.

The plan is to create a permanent archive as part of the Building Hope project, which aims to preserve the old cathedral for future generations.

The glass comes from the windows of the cathedral, destroyed during the German blitz of Coventry in November 1940.

The fragments were collected and stored in 30 wooden crates at Hampton Lucy, near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, and kept at the rectory there until 1957.

They are credited to John Thornton, a glass painter and glazier from Coventry, who is recognised as one of the finest of his art in the 15th century.

As well as painting the windows at the cathedral in his home city, he also worked on East Window at York Minster.

Muller said the the contents of the archive range from fragments to larger shards of glass.

"So much of our story, of course is embedded in our building. The glass would have been a part of the first cathedral that stood there.

"And it's an incredible part of who we are."

The glass contains scenes painted in the 15th century of the Passion of Christ, as well as the apostles and saints, and the digitisation was carried out when the collection was moved to new storage cabinets, with each tray being photographed and the images uploaded to the app.

"Coventry Cathedral's medieval stained glass is a remarkable survivor", said Emma Sweeney, project manager from the WMF.

"The Cathedral's enduring role as a symbol of peace and reconciliation reflects WMF's belief in the role of heritage to support post-conflict recovery.

"Together, the ruins and the surviving glass tell a powerful story of resilience, with much still to be uncovered", she said.

Making the collection viewable is one step in the cathedral's Building Hope project, according to Muller.

"Our long term goal is to make it accessible to the public, both in Coventry but also internationally.

"We are hoping to, at some point in the future, have a visitors centre that we can lift these out from our archive and have this collection on full display for the public and for scholars to engage with, because we need research into this.

"It's an untapped source of research at the minute."

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