All Saints' Church in

Tudeley Tudeley is a village in the Tunbridge Wells borough of Kent, England. The village is home to All Saints' Church, the only church in the world that has all its windows in stained glass designed by Marc Chagall. The East window was commissioned by ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, is the only church in the world that has all its windows in

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

History

A place of worship has existed in Tudeley since the seventh century, then one of only four in the

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

. The

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

footings of the nave and tower may date from before the Norman conquest, and the church is listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

under the village's alternative name of Tivedale. In 1293 the church was given to

Tonbridge Priory Tonbridge Priory was a priory in Tonbridge, Kent, England that was established in 1124. It was destroyed by fire in 1337 and then rebuilt. The priory was disestablished in 1523. The building stood in 1735, but was a ruin by 1780. The remains of ...

. The majority of the existing structure was created in the later

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

period, during the 13th and 14th centuries. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1526, it came under the control of

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...

, and then in 1529 became controlled by the Crown, before returning to private hands in 1548. Today it is part of the

Diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signa ...

Restoration

The structure was extensively restored and renovated from the late 18th century, rebuilt in red

Flemish Bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

brick at a cost of £1,125. Much of the earlier stone shell of the chancel survived, as well as the lower walls of the nave and west tower. Three bells were also cast at this time and hung in the tower, and the roof topped with blue slate. The extant brick tower was constructed in 1765 and in 1798 the church was described as being rebuilt. In 1871-5 Robert Medley Fulford rebuilt the nave and added the north aisle in

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

, and in 1885 the chancel arch was constructed and the 1571 Fane monument restored. The monument is to George Fane (1512-1572)

Sheriff of Kent The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (prior to 1974 the office previously known as sheriff)."Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instrum ...

in 1557–8, son of Richard Fane by his wife Agnes Stidulf, the daughter and heiress of Henry Stidulf of Badsell, the son of Thomas Stidulf and his wife Marion Badsell, whose

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pav ...

is in the chancel.

Windows

On 19 September 1963, Sarah the daughter of Sir Henry and Lady D'Avigdor-Goldsmid who owned nearby Somerhill House, was drowned in a sailing accident off Rye,

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

. In her memory, the couple commissioned Russian-French artist

to design a

window for the church. which was installed in 1967. When Chagall arrived for the dedication of the east window in 1967, and saw the church for the first time, he exclaimed ''""'' (''"It's magnificent! I will do them all!"'') Over the next ten years Chagall designed the remaining eleven windows in watercolour; these were again made in collaboration with the glassworker Charles Marq in his workshop at

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded b ...

in northern France. The windows were all installed by 1985 and in the following order: the Memorial Window in the altar wall, the five north windows (nos 1 to 5) and the two south windows (nos 11 and 12) dedicated in 1974. Installing the four

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

windows (nos. 6, 7, 9, 10) meant removing the Victorian memorial glass and so was controversial, but in 1985 these last Chagall windows were dedicated and installed, their predecessors being moved to the vestry at the back of the church, just before Chagall's death.Marc Chagall stained glass at All Saints, Tudeley http://www.tudeley.org/lookatthewindows.htm Accessed 2009-12-03 Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

History

Restoration

Windows

References

External links