Three stained glass windows in Saint Mark’s Church were made by Whitefriars of London.
You know you are looking at a stained glass window by Whitefriars if you see a small drawing of a monk in the bottom right-hand corner.
The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were London-based English glassmakers, leadlighters and stained glass window manufacturers. As Whitefriars Glass, the company existed from the 17th century, but became well known as a result of the 19th-century Gothic Revival and the demand for stained glass windows.
In 1834 James Powell (1774–1840), then a 60-year-old London wine merchant and entrepreneur of the same family as the founder of the Scout movement, Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell,[1] purchased the Whitefriars Glass Company, a small glassworks off Fleet Street in London, believed to have been established in 1680. Powell, and his sons Arthur and Nathanael, were newcomers to glass making, but soon acquired the necessary expertise. They experimented and developed new techniques, devoting a large part of their production to the creating of church stained glass windows. The firm acquired a large number of patents for their new ideas and became world leaders in their field, business being boosted by the building of hundreds of new churches during the Victorian era. While Powell manufactured stained glass windows, it also provided glass to other stained glass firms.
In the south-west corner of the Saint Mark’s nave is a stained glass window with the title "Come unto me all ye that labour"
Madonna and Child stained glass window in the north-west nave wall in Saint Mark’s Church
The triple lancet east window is a triptych of the risen Lord at the empty tomb, based on Matthew 28. It was made by Whitefriars of London to replace the one destroyed by the fire which destroyed the original church in 1949.
