Windows for the King
In 2024 Barnard Castle is celebrating 550 years since the lordship of the town was granted to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III. Windows for the King will install seven etched glass windows in the porch of St Mary's to mark this anniversary.
St Mary’s church council (PCC), in partnership with the Northern Dales Richard III Group (NDRIIIG), are excited to announce the completion of fundraising for their project to commemorate Richard III, Duke of Gloucester and King of England, in Barnard Castle. This will enable seven etched glass windows to be installed above the inner porch doorway of St Mary’s Parish Church, Barnard Castle to commemorate Richard and his close connection with St Mary’s.
As Lord of Barnard Castle, Richard invested huge sums of money to re-build St Mary’s and transform it into a Collegiate Church: this project was close to completion when he died at Bosworth. The College would have been dedicated to Christ, the Virgin Mary, St Margaret of Scotland and St Ninian.
Three central etched panels will depict Christ with Mary and these two northern saints personally connected with Richard. A further two panels will portray St Helen of the Holy Cross and St Catherine of Alexandria, saints with medieval chantries within or close to St Mary’s in the late C15th. The final two panels will show Ricardian boars, as ‘supporters’, as illustrated on the St Anthony effigy near the font in St Mary’s. Our project group chose the artist Rachel Phillips to design the windows.
Alongside the 1934 Richard III Society window in St Alkelda & St Mary’s Middleham, and the Memorial Window in York Minster, given by the Society of Friends of Richard III in 1997, the Windows for the King will be a lasting tribute to Richard’s personal faith, and demonstrate his dedication to the North and to the town where he was Lord of the Manor from 1474.
