TG0704 : Continental stained glass in Kimberley St Peter
taken 8 years ago, near to Kimberley, Norfolk, England
Kloster Steinfeld, as it is known in Germany, was a Premonstratensian monastery located in Steinfeld in the parish of Kall in North Rhine-Westphalia. After the dissolution in 1802 the stained glass windows in the cloister, made between 1526 and 1557 by Gerhard Remisch, were sold by a local dealer to a compatriot, John Christopher Hampp in Norwich. Hampp’s account book for 1802–1804 and sale catalogues from 1804 and 1808 would seem to suggest that all of the Steinfeld glass was imported into Britain before 1804. Some of the panels found their way to village churches in East Anglia, but the majority - about 120 panels, including 38 from Steinfeld, approximately the same number of panels from the nearby Cistercian convent at Mariawald; and the origin of the remaining panels as yet unknown - was acquired by Lord Brownlow for his private chapel at Ashridge Park. After his death, all the panels were sold at auction and the whole collection was purchased by the American philanthropist Ernest Cook, who in turn donated it to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Mainly due to the painstaking work of stained glass expert David J King, additional panels and smaller fragments have since been discovered in a number of East Anglian parish churches, and thanks to the documentation of these panels in their original environment many could be identified. One panel, unearthed by King in the mid-1980s in a cupboard in the vestry of St Mary's church in East Bilney > Link , has since even found its way back to Steinfeld where it is now again installed in the cloister.
Panels confirmed to originate from Steinfeld Abbey can be seen in Drayton St Margaret's church > Link - Link
in St Mary's church in Warham > Link - Link and Link
in the church of St Mary Magdalen in Mulbarton > Link - Link
in the church of All Saints in Chedgrave > Link - Link
in St Peter's church in Kimberley > Link
and in Hevingham St Botolph’s church > Link - Link and Link
Blickling Hall has a collection of eight panels which can be seen for a fee, but must not be photographed by the public as the National Trust, who owns it, does not permit photography in properties owned by them. The great majority of Steinfeld Abbey panels however remain with the Victoria and Albert Museum. A few panels are also on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.