Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Stained Glass Donated by Lady Franklin

Today I happened upon St. Paul’s Anglican Church here on the outskirts of Churchill, which is the first prefabricated building in North America and is the oldest church in the North still in use. It originated as a kit of pre-fab components made in England and was assembled on the west bank of the Churchill River.  

The famous glass is inside, in front, on the right.
It was later moved in winter by sledge to the other side of the river, followed by a final relocation to where it stands today. St. Paul's is the home of the stained glass window donated by Lady Franklin in memory of her husband, Sir John Franklin.  It was moved here from York Factory in 1967.




In the inscription it says:  "As a memorial to her husband and to the forty groups who took part in the search for him, Lady Franklin gave this window to St. John's, York Factory."


Lady Franklin's stained glass
Glass detail 1
In conversation with Fr. Charles, he mentioned that when it's dark out, the back lighting for the window needed very much help.  Hey, that's my forte!  So a nice halogen solution for them is on it's way, on  us.  Soon it will really glow.

Glass detail 2

2 comments:

  1. How cool is that!

    Thanks for sharing this. I didn't know.

    Did you know about this and seek it out? or did you get surprised by this?

    Ted

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  2. I had heard about it years ago, but didn't remember where it was at, even if it was in Canada. So definitely stumbled into it here.

    It was probably bound to happen I guess, as I am always curious to explore all areas and I have definitely nosed around Churchill from north of the fort, 150 miles to the west by air in the Beaver...and south as far as one can go by land past the missile launch site.

    I hope I stumble into other things up on King William, hahaha.

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