St John the Baptist
Penshurst, Kent
A church has stood here since 1115, at the centre of a cluster of buildings, including manor house, guild house and rectory, all still surviving.
It is known, first and foremost, for its fine series of Victorian stained glass windows, much of it made in the workshops of Morris & Co after the church was rebuilt in the 1870s, with the designs done by Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown and other key members of the preRaphaelite movement.
It is hard not to marvel at this glass: St Mary holding a Madonna lily (a key pre-Raphaelite motif); the four evangelists; a roundel depicting Christ in Glory surrounded by angels in gold, red and white.
Angels are everywhere, many of them playing musical instruments. The rich, subtle colours in the windows are remarkable: St Nicholas in robes of green and red; Pope Gregory in intricately worked gold; more angels with delicately executed wings in pink and white, and foliage in many shades of green.
