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Henry Holiday (1839-1927) was one of the most talented stained glass artists of his time, and his productions were at their best during the 1890s,the period of the two windows at Edgworth. Holiday was very much a Londoner, but his wife Kate Raven, was a daughter of the Vicar of Preston, Lancashire, and he spent many summers in the Lake District, where he eventually built a holiday home, so that many of his windows are to be found in N.W. England.

From 1863 until 1890 he was principal designer for James Powell and Sons, of Whitefriars, London. Early examples of his work for Powell maybe seen in St. Lukes, Preston, and there are several windows by Holiday, covering the period 1879-1890, in St. John, Keswick. Holiday also supplied many designs to Heaton, Butler and Bayne, another London firm (certain features of the Faith, Hope and Charity, c1879, at Kirkby Lonsdale may look familiar) and several to Shrigley & Hunt of Lancaster (see, particularly, Whittington, not far from Kirkby Lonsdale}.

During the 1880s Holiday became increasingly unhappy about the manner in which his designs were being executed, so in 1891 he established his own workshop at Hampstead, London. The improvement in the overall quality of the finished windows was staggering, once Holiday was able to control all stages of production. A particularly telling comparison can be made at Salisbury Cathedral where a window of 1890 made by Powell was followed within two years by a rich and vibrant design made in the artist's own studio.

Early in his career Holiday was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artists, who sought to paint from nature, rather than compose their work entirely in the studio. William Morris and his colleagues were influenced similarly, with the consequence that many of Holiday's early windows have mistakenly been attributed to the Morris firm. By 1870, however, Holiday had become attracted to the art of Renaissance Italy, and his subsequent windows show a later classical influence: those at Edgworth are no exception. Holiday took delight in drawing the human body, and all his window designs are based on numerous figure studies. Notice how natural his figures are compared with those in many contemporary windows.

The East window : Faith, Hope and Love (or charity) is one of Holiday's most frequent themes, often with a fairly small range of figures being used on several occasions in varying combinations. The figure representing Love at Edgworth was very popular, and Hope, parting the clouds, with iris - the flower of hope - growing at her side, is said to have been one of the artist's favourite designs. Both these figures were first used about 1880 but the representation of Faith at Edgworth may be unique.

Holiday designed a range of winged angelic figures, which were frequently used to fill the upper parts of tall windows. The examples at Edgworth are all familiar, though here they are less well integrated with the main subject than is sometimes the case, for the lower figures are much richer in tone and confined within their own setting. The grisaille pattern between the upper figures was another of Holiday's characteristics, which he discussed at some length in the book `Stained Glass As an Art' which he wrote in 1896.

The figures in the south window, depicting the Good Shepherd, the Sower and the lost piece of silver were designed in 1889 for a window in St. John, Keswick, made by Powell, and were reused again at Symondsbury, Dorset, more than thirty years later. The figures at Edgworth are given a rich treatment, and only here is there room enough for a familiar angel to appear above. This window was probably made about 1895; at least that is the date given in a partial and rather inaccurate list of Holiday's windows, prepared by his daughter in 1930. No mention is made of the East window, although from their similarity of style both windows appear to have been made at much the same period.

Holiday continued to design windows until the mid-1920s. Examples of large late windows in Lancashire include a First World War memorial in St. Augustine, Tonge Moor, Bolton, and a design of 1921 in St. Silas, Blackburn. Holiday supplied windows to several Unitarian Churches, and at the turn of the Century made three large windows for the Congregational (now United Reform) church in Bolton, but we know nothing of any connection he might have had with Methodism in the North West.

A few pictures of the lovely stained glass windows in Edgworth Methodist Church.

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