St Peter's Parish News
Thursday 1 January 1970
The Great West Window
Parish news is a little light during holidays, and we have been including pieces about some of our stained glass windows to fill the summer gaps. We cannot miss out the Great West Window of course – the huge riot of colour that adorns the west end of St Peter’s, a glorious Victorian work set into a medieval window. The window has elements of both Curvilinear and Perpendicular tracery, suggesting a late 14th-century date. The 19th-century glass is from the workshop of Heaton, Butler and Bayne and it shows a variety of saints and Biblical scenes. We see many Biblical scenes – Christ healing a leper, the conversion of Saul, the martyrdom of St Andrew. Right up at the top there is a small image of St Catherine with the wheel of her martyrdom. The glasswork was highly acclaimed and (presumably prior to its installation in St Peter’s) it was exhibited in Paris at the Exposition Universelle of 1867, where it won a Bronze Medal (Class XVI – Crystal, Fancy Glass & Stained Glass – British section).
The window was paid for by a legacy from an eminent local surgeon, Thomas Whateley, who was respected in Berkhamsted for his philanthropic work. Whateley owned Egerton House (now the Rex Cinema) and properties in Castle Street, was a trustee of various charities, and supported the building of the new Town Hall. He also sided with Augustus Smith in the Battle of Berkhamsted Common in 1865. Upon his death in 1867, Whateley was greatly mourned by the town, and he was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery. His brother George, also a surgeon, was laid to rest here as well. George and his wife Mary Ann are commemorated by a brass plaque next to the choir stalls in St Peter’s, “placed here by their ten surviving children”.
www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk 
