The Siddington glass in the window of Cirencester's Parish Church

HAVING recently visited the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, a paradise to ecclesiologists, it perhaps may be permitted to me, a complete outsider, but a general lover of ancient churches and an opponent of the transference of their contents, to offer a few remarks on the revival of a long-standing dispute between the great and noble church of Cirencester, and its much humbler, but ancient and interesting neighbour in the village of Siddington.

The following, I believe, is a correct summary of facts relative to the stripping of Siddington of some of its most valuable adjuncts in favour of the far greater and richer fabric.

The painted glass in question, now forming part of the east window of the chancel of the well-known fine church of Cirencester, was removed from the Lady Chapel or Langley Chantry of Siddington about the year 1800. A colourful picture of this beautiful glass can be seen in Lysons’s “Antiquities of Gloucestershire,” when it was in the church of Siddington. It consists of the Virgin and Child and two female saints, with figures below of members of the Langley family. The inscription, to the effect that the Siddington Lady Chapel had been built by Edward Langley in honour of the Salutation of the Virgin, is still intact. This chapel has Langley tombs remaining, despoiled of their brasses, and contains various shields of arms of that family, and Edward Langley’s monogram in the stonework. The Langley’s resided at Siddington for centuries; the village was formerly known as Siddington Langley.

The glass was removed to Cirencester, after a high-handed fashion and not without remonstrance, about a century ago; but when the church was restored, at a cost of some £14,000 by Gilbert Scott in 1867-8, the stonework at the base of this chancel window was raised, and the Langley figures at the bottom of the Siddington glass were not required. Thereupon this portion of the window was sent back to Siddington. At this time the parishioners of that village petitioned for the return of the whole of their glass. A resolution of the Cirencester vestry of that date is still extant stating that the remaining glass should be returned when funds were available to replace it. This, however, was never done, and a few years ago, the Cirencester window being again enlarged, the Langley figures forming the lower portion, were purchased from the Siddington authorities and replaced in the Cirencester chancel.

This window, as it now exists, with its inscription, tells a continuous untruth; to the antiquary or ecclesiologist it is utterly misleading; whilst to the church and the town it is a discredit. This glass was given to Siddington, and remained there for centuries, and the Langley’s thereon depicted were buried beneath it. If the circumstances were more generally known, there is little doubt that this memorial glass would be restored to the place for which the donor intended it. It is with this object that I write in a spirit of general conversation, for I have not the slightest connection with either Siddington or Cirencester.

Rev J Charles Cox Sydenham September 4, 1913