A somewhat tenuous link between Stained glass workshops for the New Year, Jane Eyre, The Peaks and Hathersage Parish Church….

Recently I went on a walk in the Peaks, wanting to soak in the golden amber, orange and red eye candy of autumn colours before big winds or rain carried it all away. I knew I should have been busy writing about the New Courses and Workshops I have coming up in the New Year!

Instead, or rather along with enjoying the autumn colour I discovered the connection Jane Eyre has with Hathersage and the lovely stained glass in Hathersage parish church, St Michaels and All Angels.

More here with the east window by Charles Kempe.

We walked or I followed a friend who knows the area much better than me, from Hathersage up to Stanage across to Longshaw estate for lunch and back across Over Owler Tor and through ghostly silver birch woods back to Hathersage. I possibly may have got that right.

Starting in Hathersage, I of course had to have a peek inside the small but certainly not diminutive parish Church, visit the famous ‘Little John’s Grave’ and see the beautiful windows.

Inside the church my friend spotted a postcard telling all about Jane Eyre’s wanderings in the area (which I hasten to add I did purchase before taking a picture of it). If you search the church you will find the ‘Eyre brasses’.  We didn’t stop for long enough to do this, a longish walk ahead of us and not enough daylight at this time of year to pause for too long.

The walk took us past Thornfield House where Mr Rochester lived in the novel, in the real world it is North Lees Hall and not a Mr Rochester in sight, only a gently green vista rolling towards Stanage Edge.

I didn’t manage to capture the beauty of the moors and woods with the grand colours on camera, but it was a pleasure to walk around this beautiful area and discover more. Not sure I would fancy being lost wandering around the moors as Jane Eyre did. I’m content to be much more familiar with the area and know how the original local Eyre family inspired Charlotte Bronte to name her heroine ‘Jane Eyre’.

The actual purpose of writing this blog was to let people know I have New dates for the New Year workshops and courses in the art of creating stained glass. Do, if interested, come and learn the art of stained glass, enjoying the colours and year round beauty of glass. I cannot promise your first panel will be for a church but you will make a lovely panel to take home.  Thank you for reading.