Stained Glass of Buckinghamshire Churches

Windows by Caroline Charlotte Townshend - Maker

Caroline Charlotte Townshend (1878-1944) was a British stained glass artist of the Arts and Crafts Movement. She trained at Slade School of Fine Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts before becoming a pupil of Christopher Whall. She designed and made many stained glass windows, particularly for churches and cathedrals and set up the stained glass firm of Townshend and Howson in 1920 with her student and apprentice, Joan Howson. They used a dual signature for their completed works. Like her mother, she was a suffragette and member of the Fabian Society. Caroline Charlotte Townshend was born on 4 September 1878 to Chambre (or "Cambrey") Corker Townshend and Emily Gibson, at 21 Endsleigh Street the fourth of five children Her father had trained as an architect and was for a while an assistant to George Edmund Street. Her mother, Emily Gibson had been the first applicant to the College for Women, (now Girton College) at Cambridge and was a student there from 1869-1872. She met her husband through Isabella Townshend, a fellow student at the College for Women. Emily later wrote "Chambrey Townshend had little push and no business ability to back up his remarkable artistic abilities" and the family lived abroad for some time as it was cheaper. Emily later served time in Holloway Prison for suffragette activity, as did Rachel, her daughter and Caroline's sister. After her family returned from Europe Caroline Townsend was a pupil at Wycombe Abbey School. Townshend was educated at the Slade School of Fine Art. After a period as a student at the Slade she decided that she wanted to try stained glass and by 1901 asked Christopher Whall to take her on as a pupil. She assisted in his studio and attended his classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts until 1903. She set up her own studio at The Glass House in Fulham, South-West London in 1903. Many stained glass artists of the Arts and Crafts movement had their studios at The Glass House, including Mary Lowndes, Karl Parsons, Margaret Agnes Rope, M. E. Aldrich Rope, Theodora Salusbury, Arild Rosenkrantz, Wilhelmina Geddes, Clare Dawson, Rachel de Montmorency, Margaret Thompson, Lilian Josephine Pocock, Hugh Arnold and Edward Liddall Armitage. It was at The Glass House in 1913 that she met Joan Howson, a student of the Liverpool School of Art, who would become her student and apprentice. In 1920 they set up their company Townshend & Howson. They moved to 61 Deodar Road in Putney which they had converted to house a studio and workshop, which was also shared by fellow stained glass artist M. E. Aldrich Rope. Neighbours included Edward Woore and other stained glass artists. During the earlier part of World War II, she cared for evacuee children at three hospitals in North Wales with Howson and Rope. She was member of the Fabian Society, a democratic socialist organisation, and in 1910 was a candidate of the Labour Party for the Board of Guardians in Fulham, London. In 1918, Townshend designed banners for the Fabian Society, executed by 19 women, and for the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association. Caroline Townshend died on 10 June 1944 in Pwllheli, North Wales, leaving just over £30,000 to Joan Howson. Howson continued to use the name of their partnership after Townshend's death. (Wikipedia)

3 Windows, listed in Church Order

Sort Windows by Date

Location	Church	Date	Craftsmen
N aisle N (E)	All Saints in High Wycombe	1932	Caroline Charlotte Townshend
Chancel N (E)	Dedication unknown in Little Hampden	1930	Caroline Charlotte Townshend
East	St Firmin in North Crawley	1932	Caroline Charlotte Townshend

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Stained Glass of Buckinghamshire Churches