Researching stained glass

Other online resources are of great help when researching stained glass.

Stained Glass in Wales Flickr Group
One of many Flickr Groups with photography of stained glass, but now marked obsolete.

CVMA
Project website of the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) of Great Britain, and digital picture archive of medieval glass in England and Wales.

The Medieval Stained Glass Photographic Archive
Over 60,000 photographs of medieval glass in England and France by Painton Cowen.

Visit Stained Glass
A showcase for some of Britain's finest stained glass windows.

The Stained Glass Museum
Website for the museum in the south triforium of Ely Cathedral. The website includes examples of work by many makers since the thirteenth century in the collection pages.

Sussex Parish Churches
Detailed information on architecture and fittings from churches in East and West Sussex. The listings of architects and artists is the best source of biographical material online.

Buckinghamshire Stained Glass
Database of over 1600 windows from the county with over 3300 photographs, searchable by maker, subject and date, created by Monica and Cliff Robinson. The most useful site for finding examples of work by nineteenth- and twentieth-century makers.

Church Stained Glass Windows
Database of over 42,000 windows (in January 2024) from churches (mainly) in the south and east of England, searchable by firm, designer and subject.

Scottish Stained Glass Trust
Searchable database of stained glass in Scotland.

Gloine: Stained Glass in the Church of Ireland
Information and photographs of all of the windows throughout the Church of Ireland.

Vitrosearch
Searchable database of stained glass (as well as drawings and cartoons) from all periods, mainly by continental European makers. Provided by the Vitromusée in Romont, Switzerland and searchable by Iconclass keyword.

Institute for Stained Glass in Canada
Richly illustrated survey of stained glass in Canada, with photography by Patrick Burns. Includes work Canadian churches by the British firms including Celtic Studios, who exported a third of their work to Canada.

Michigan Stained Glass Census
Survey of architectural stained glass from Michigan that also includes exported work from European studios.


Stained Glass from Welsh Churches by Martin Crampin was published in 2014 by Y Lolfa (Talybont). The two books on saints published by the same press also include much stained glass from Wales, not all of which are yet available on this site.
Martin Crampin, Depicting St David (Y Lolfa, 2020).
Martin Crampin, Welsh Saints from Welsh Churches (Y Lolfa, 2023).

For a statement about the potential, and also some of the difficulties, in growing the site, ten years after its launch, see the Stained Glass from Welsh Churches blog.

A selection of the principal printed sources for information for this online catalogue.

The Buildings of Wales series, or 'Pevsners', cover each region of Wales and were published between 1979 and 2009. They list nearly all of the sites included in the catalogue, and sometimes give dates and names of makers for windows. The volumes are as follows: Powys (1979, revised edition 2013), Clwyd (1986), Glamorgan (1995), Monmouthshire (2000), Pembrokeshire (2004), Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion (2006) and Gwynedd (2009).

Mostyn Lewis, Stained Glass in North Wales up to 1850 (Altrincham, 1970). Contains detailed descriptions of all stained glass in the northern half of Wales from the medieval period and up to 1850.

Malcolm Seaborne, Victorian and Later Stained Glass Windows in Flintshire Churches (Mold, 1996). Despite being restricted to the county of Flintshire, this comprehensive listing of glass has useful notes on makers.

Maurice Broady, A Vision Fulfilled: The story of Celtic Studios and Swansea's architectural glass tradition (Swansea, 2010). Edited by Elspeth Broady and Alun Adams after the author's death, the book also contains a complete listing of the output of the firm.

Joyce Little, Stained Glass Marks and Monograms (London, 2002). An essential guide to marks, monograms and signatures that enable the identification of stained glass windows published by (and periodically updated by) the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies. Also contains useful biographical details.

For more resources used in the compilation of this catalogue please visit the Bibliography.