Cynegils

Here's a sentence I never expected to write: today I went to visit Bracknell. Actually I was in Easthampstead, one of the villages swallowed up when Bracknell New Town was created in the 1960s. I travelled there to visit the parish and pilgrimage church of St Michael and St Mary Magdalene which was open under the Heritage Open Days scheme. The church is renowned for having five superb stained glass windows designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones in classic Pre-Raphaelite style and made by William Morris & Co. between 1876 and 1914. I had expected to blip one of these great installations, perhaps the famous Last Judgement window. But then I discovered a more recent and rather small window in the porch, easily overlooked as you pass through the doorway into the nave. It dates from 2013 and is by the incomparable modern master of the art, Thomas Denny. My blip is a detail showing the baptism of King Cynegils by Saint Birinus, an event which is believed to have taken place around 635 AD and which led to the establishment of Christianity in the Thames valley. More of Thomas Denny's work blipped here from our trip to Malvern last month.