The second episode of the third series of ‘Grundy’s Wonders’ produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy. In this episode John explores the history and development of glass windows travelling across the Northeast and North Yorkshire to see how glass in buildings have developed from the Anglo-Saxon period to today. An animation of a book with its pages turning revealing different buildings and architectural styles ending...

The second episode of the third series of ‘Grundy’s Wonders’ produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy. In this episode John explores the history and development of glass windows travelling across the Northeast and North Yorkshire to see how glass in buildings have developed from the Anglo-Saxon period to today. An animation of a book with its pages turning revealing different buildings and architectural styles ending on presenter John Grundy holding the programmes title card. Title: Grundy’s Wonders Leaning against a wall of St Paul Monastery at Jarrow presenter John Grundy holds a bottle of red wine in one hand and a half glass of wine in the other. Explaining the importance of visual aids in education he takes swigs from both to identify two of the three things that can be done with glass. However, John explains, neither is what this programme is about rather it is all about window glass. A montage of various sized and shaped windows all containing different types of window glass from different periods in history. Returning to John walking through St Paul’s churchyards he talks about the founder of the monastery Benedict Biscop who built the church in 681AD. John is equally impressed with the fact the Bishop Biscop not only visited Rome six times in his lifetime, but that he bought back with him a series of craftsmen imported from Southern France and Italy who not only reintroduced building with stone but also the use of window glass. Views of the many stained-glass windows inside the church ending on John standing beneath a small round Anglo-Saxon window explaining it is the oldest window glass in the whole of Western Europe. Sitting at table lit by candlelight inside Barley Hall in York, John explains that by the Middle-ages window glass was very expensive and only available to the very rich, such as the Earl of Northumberland. While the poor had to make do with holes in the wall, for the semi-rich there were other options. Walking into the banqueting hall at Barley Hall John provides details of the development of the hall and the decision to recreate what was originally there from archaeological evidence and using original Medieval technology including use of two types of windows the first of which features a window made with wax-cloth or paper. Sitting at a table surrounding by various types of animal horn he attempts to explain how these items can also be used to make the second type of window, beside him an example of a window glazed with horn. Standing outside of York Minster John explains that due to them having money Medieval churches were stuffed with glass. He makes a boast about the Northeast by saying that no where else in the country is better for seeing stained glass than York. As John wonders the streets explaining that the visitor is spoilt for choice if they are looking for church-stained glass windows, he eventually arrives at Holy Trinity on Goodramgate which is a redundant church now looked after by the Church Conservation Trust. John wonders around the interior looking at its fine stained-glass window featuring the body of Christ also known as Corpus Christi. Also featured is the window of St George and St Christopher as well as the Reverend John Walker who paid for the window to be installed in 1471. John explains that the Reverend Walker was also a member of several Medieval Guilds all based around these three religious figures. Standing in the aisle with the window behind him John explains there are two ‘wonderful’ things about this stained-glass, the first is it is an extraordinary legacy of Medieval art freely available to us and the second is that it is here at all. He goes onto talk about the Puritan period during the 16th and 17th centuries where most parish church-stained glass windows were deliberately smashed as they were considered idols. Although no-one knows why so much glass has survived in York, a common believe is that it was the work of Lord Fairfax of nearby Gilling Castle where the programme will be going after the commercial break. Title: Grundy’s Wonders End of Part One Part Two Over a montage of the village of Gilling East and nearby Gilling Castle in North Yorkshire, John provides some history of the Fairfax family who lived there. Inside the Great Chamber described by John as one of the greatest Elizabethan rooms in existence he points out its features that would have been only available to the super-rich. Focusing on the stained-glass windows he points out that it features heraldic shields rather than religious scenes and that it is really hard to look out of. However, this wasn’t the point of a window in Medieval times, light and comfort were the twin points. Walking through the room John explains for the rest of the programme he will be looking at how windows which were the preserve of the super-rich became taken for granted by the poorest in the land. In the village of Ripley near Harrogate in North Yorkshire John walks along Main Street passing a row of estate cottages explaining that by the end of the 18th century even the poor were able to afford light and comfort that proper windows provide. With visitors wondering around this now picturesque village John explains that it wasn’t originally built as such. But what, he asks makes it look so picturesque, the pretty windows. A montage follows of the three styles of windows incorporated around the village: Georgian, Tutor and Gothic. Sitting beside a bay window inside one of the houses at Ripley John speaks critically of modern windows which can be purchased in any style off-the-peg. Over a montage of various types of modern windows including UPVC John sees them as being phony and sadly all over the place. So, for this week’s weeks ‘Grundy’s Great Boot of History’ he is going to crush these nasty windows that blight the houses of Britain. An animation of a ‘great boot’ coming down a terraced street featuring modern windows. Over a series of archival images of the Newcastle and Gateshead glassworks, John explains how the area was amongst the most important parts of country for the production of window glass. At Newburn on the western edge of Newcastle is the Lemington Cone, one of the last surviving glass kilns large enough to produce the high temperatures needed to melt sand into glass. With John looking over its cathedral like interior, he comes to stand outside to say that is one of the greatest surviving structures of the 18th century. However, by the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries glass was beginning to change. Using Longhurst Hall near Morpeth in Northumberland as an example, John explains how glass changed in two important ways. Described by John as his masterpiece, a montage of the house built by John Dobson in 1824. He goes onto point out the first of these changes with the houses using the latest in glass technology to produce both plate as well as curved glass windows which were clearer, larger and much thinner than was possible to produce previously. Standing in one of the living rooms at the Hall John explains that the second way glass changed was in the way people used it. By the end of the Georgian period people came to love views from their windows, especially of nature. Knocking on a piece of plate glass he states how far glass has come from the Anglo-Saxon fragments at Jarrow. A Victorian greenhouse with John explaining that the Victorians loved glass. Following a drawing showing Crystal Palace in London the exterior of Otterburn Hall in Northumberland and a conservatory built onto the side of it in 1869. After explaining that conservatories are places to snooze following dinner John sitting in a chair puts down his newspaper and has a nap. Returning to the Lemington Cone John bring the glass story up to date by showing what the cone has become since it stopped being part of the glass works. Views around an impressive car showroom that uses glass and described by John as sleek and beautiful and impossible for the finest palaces half a century ago. As the camera passes through one of the large industrial greenhouses next to the Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire John asks if this is science fiction? An aerial of the 35-acre site and nearby cooling towers. The programme comes to an end back where it began inside St Paul Monastery at Jarrow where John gives this week’s ‘Grundy’s Wonder’ to a collection to the window made up of tiny fragments of glass more than 1300 years old. An animation of a fanfare of trumpets over the following title. Title: Grundy’s Wonders Over the closing credits a montage of some of the windows featured in this programme. Credit: Written and Presented by John Grundy Camera and Location Direction Simon Elphinstone, Dave Dixon Sound Paul Graham Lighting Ken Campbell, Lew Hedley, John Mason, Gordon Porteous Production Assistants Margaret McKie Production Manager Christine Stewart-Tilling Graphics Dave Richardson Title Music and Dubbing John Cook Editor Mike Pounder Executive Producer Jane Bolesworth Series Producer Steve Robins End title: A Tyne Tees Television production. Granada. © Tyne Tees Television MMII