This large, well-illustrated volume cataloguing the medieval stained glass of Cheshire is another produced under the auspices of the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA). It is also another fine piece of work by Penny Hebgin-Barnes; and publication in 2010 follows hard on that of a companion volume on Lancashire the previous year. As she explains in the introduction, both volumes should be read together and the introduction is common to both. Thus points made in this review hold good for her work on Lancashire. She has previously (1996) written the catalogue for Lincolnshire.

Following the format of all CVMA summary catalogue volumes, the lengthy introduction (in this case 150 pages) is divided into sections which cover, amongst other topics, historical context, documentary sources, donors and heraldry, style and design, technique and workshops. These essays are works of scholarship which are invaluable to historians and art historians, since they examine the context and physical form of artistic patronage. Hebgin-Barnes's essay on Cheshire is no exception.

What is exceptional, however, in these two volumes, is the chronological coverage. The standard cut-off date for CVMA volumes is c. 1540, but for Cheshire and Lancashire coverage extended to c. 1800. There are two reasons for this departure: the Reformation in these two counties had had very little impact by 1540; and continuities between medieval and later glass are such that ‘the volume would be the poorer for the omission of these’.

Throughout the late medieval and early modern period Cheshire and Lancashire were marked by their sparse population and their remoteness from urban centres. Changes in opinion and mores were slow to take hold, and this held true both for politics and religion. A sparse population made for a small number of parishes, spread over a wide geographic area, with consequently relatively few parish churches in comparison with other parts of England. In order to cater for such a scattered population the Church had allowed to develop numerous chapels, either centred on houses of the gentry and aristocracy, or on religious institutions, which were used by those living in the vicinity.

A sparse population, conservative in its habits and beliefs, closely attached to chapels centred on families for whom traditional religious belief was integral to their way of life, proved highly resistant to the imposition of reformed religion. Hebgin-Barnes provides details of where and how pre-Reformation liturgical and devotional practices survived, against all odds, and the impact of their survival on glazing schemes. Equally, where the impact of changes brought about by the Reformation is evident in patronage and iconography, as at High Legh, attention is drawn to these. She is careful to set this detailed information in the wider context of current debates on the impact of the Reformation in England.

As a result of the proliferation of chapels, particularly during the latter part of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century, and the rebuilding of many parish churches in the same period, most of the remaining medieval glass dates from this period. With few exceptions, such as at Grappenhall, the lack of earlier glass is another marked feature of Cheshire and Lancashire. By the late fifteenth century donations for glazing schemes on the part of gentry and yeomen were becoming more common and it is therefore no surprise that the influence of these groups is more often seen in glazing schemes, represented by donor figures, heraldry or detailed, lengthy inscriptions. One would have liked a little more comment on the changing nature of patronage indicated here, but it is not generally the role of these catalogue volumes to explore such issues in great detail.

‘The democratization of glass’, to use Hebgin-Barnes phrase, ‘allowed the bourgeoisie an opportunity for immortalization that had been denied their ancestors’ (p. 1xxxviii). Apart from being a comment on shifting patterns of patronage this is also a judgement on the quality of work produced by English glaziers of this period, since democratisation also led to an increase in production and to poor copying. Hebgin-Barnes concurs with her CVMA colleague, David King (editor of a forthcoming volume on Norfolk), in noting that the late fifteenth-early sixteenth century was not the best period for English glass. This was an era when printed images became more widely available and the use of these in different media was often less than successful.

This was also a period when the work of glaziers from northern Europe became more common in England. They introduced not only new techniques but also new subject-matter, both sacred and secular, and it became fashionable to copy their work. The best foreign work, such as that in the chapel of King's College Cambridge, was of excellent quality, but copies could, as Hebgin-Barnes points out (pp. clxxvi–clxxvii), be at best undistinguished, and often crude.

One of the most interesting features of the volume on Cheshire, as that on Lancashire, is the attention to glass of the early modern period, much of which was imported from northern Europe by gentry and clergy for domestic settings or as part of restoration work in parish churches. Some of this now forms part of the important collection of glass in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Sadly, it has not been possible to provide a provenance for much of this foreign glazing.

Whilst little is known of the origins of much of the foreign glass in Cheshire, there is evidence for glass-making in the county itself and nearby in Wales in the medieval period; and Hebgin-Barnes discusses the impact of local glass-making, as well as pointing out local stylistic affinities.

Those who find the format of CVMA catalogues – particularly the use of upper- and lower-case Roman numerals both for text and images – irritating or arcane, should persevere. There is much of interest in this well edited and beautifully produced volume.