Shropshire Magazine

Stephen Byrne.

Their professional backgrounds differ as widely as can be imagined, but the two creators of some of the finest stained glass in the country bring together talents which have an extraordinary synergy. They tell their tale to Shirley Tart. Pictures: Mike Hayward

It was life changing for them both. When the ‘mad doctor’ who was trying to escape city life met the classically trained designer with the fine-arts degree, a new world had begun.

Not that David Williams and Stephen Byrne knew it at the time. But in that way that fate has of intervening, the partnership has proved to be a glorious success.

It was two like minds grasping the same vision and two people suddenly on the same path. Which was how their business – more of a lifestyle really – of designing, painting and restoring glass was established. It is now flourishing in south Shropshire, by a village church with an ancient rural panorama beyond.

While ideas and designs whirl round their purpose-built, light-wood and beamed premises, their bespoke and original work – which is exquisitely painted on hand-made glass – is mostly created just where it is to be installed, while the restoration and conservation of ancient glass must always be done in situ.

But all of that is in a way just the mechanics of what Williams and Byrne are about. Their greatest strength, their motivation, their inspiration, is the explosion of ideas, the fusion of shared vision and enthusiasm, the stretching of boundaries; being prepared to boldly go where some might say you are not supposed to go at all.

And it works. Whatever your views on stained or hand-painted glass, David and Stephen will stretch them. If you think something might not be possible, they will very likely create it. While they love and learn from much in the past, they are not bound by the restrictions tradition can impose.

Classical music gently flows through their studios and workshop like balm, an open piano with sheet music stands testament to Stephen’s original thought that he might sometimes be able to stop and play.

An impressive door panel.

“I just love playing Bach. But time didn’t work out quite like that,” he smiles. And on this day he is just a touch fragile having been up much of the night with his pride and joy, his three-year-old daughter. Stephen lives in Leintwardine and often comes over the border to the studio on his bike, a far cry from his early career as a pin-striped business analyst in the City of London.

He explains: “I was coming up to my 40th birthday and had got fed up with ephemeral things. I wanted a different way and pace of life and glass painting really appealed to me. So I looked at it further and went for an apprenticeship at Hardman’s of Birmingham where David was chief designer.”

Which was the moment David’s colleague remarked, in a reference to Stephen’s doctorate: “We’ve got a mad doctor coming in to see us today.”

“I liked that,” recalls David. “The thought of a mad doctor who wanted to change direction. And I always say that our meeting up in Birmingham was one of those real moments in life. Stephen wanted to use his hands, get involved and make something. I wanted to design, it all seemed right.”

In fact now, their combined skills from idea to finished product are not only complementary but almost interchangeable.

David’s career began with a fine-arts degree from Sunderland College of Arts followed by an eight-year apprenticeship with Patrick Reyntiens, regarded by many as the country’s leading stained-glass artist.

A sample of stained glass from Williams and Byrne.

Among other great projects, David worked with the master on John Piper windows – painter, printmaker, war artist, writer on English architecture and set designer, Piper could lay claim to be the most brilliant designer of stained-glass windows of the 20th century – and on the Benjamin Britten memorial window at Aldeburgh.

Then for 15 years he was at Hardman’s, joined eventually by Stephen. Four years ago the pair, who both lived in Shropshire at the time, saw the logic of not only using and extending their shared vision but also of working in the county rather than commuting every day: another life-changing moment, one for which they will always be grateful and which directly enhances the lives of others.

Stephen himself had no experience in glass painting or anything close when he decided to opt out of City life. People will still ask why on earth he chose that for his next career?

Almost romantically, it was the thought of being part of the 1,000-year-old tradition of painting on glass which so appealed to him when he walked out of his suit into a new, exciting world.

Stephen also very much liked the idea of being part of something he could carry on learning for the rest of his life, and so it is.

Both have a passion for experiment but also an eye for exact detail, which means that they can mimic styles from pretty well any period – what they cheerfully call “forgeries of the highest order”.

Glass-makers travel to rural Shropshire from as far afield as Japan, Australia and America as well as most of Europe; while this year, our talented artists are off to Geneva to repair about 60 windows in a lakeside villa. Well, as David says tongue firmly in cheek, someone has to do it!

The other great thing about Williams and Byrne is that they also want to share their own knowledge rather than keep it close to their artistic chests. So several times a year, they run courses at their studio. Whether totally novice, with some experience or part of the profession, their ‘students’ will never go away without having learned a little more!

You can see the greater depth of David and Stephen when they insist that one of their richest rewards is what they learn from their students.

Which brings us to the magnificent Williams and Byrne productions. Designs which push the limits, exquisite painting on handmade glass, glorious results. To use one of their own colourful phrases, they are “driven by design and unlimited by tradition”. And they have no particular style except, says Stephen, “to do what we do very, very well.”

Increasingly, their work can be seen in churches, other public buildings and many private homes. A memorial window in Neen Savage Church; the restoration of the Lazarus window in St Chad’s Church at Shrewsbury; a landing window for the Victorian home of American crime writer Kate Charles, who now lives in Ludlow and has been described in a deliciously evocative manner as “a most English writer”. The window reflects Kate’s and her husband’s life, naturally incorporating the much-loved dog!

Unique

Techniques by which they apply many layers of paint and colour then fire the glass just once, give unique results. A rose window commissioned for a country house will glow like a brilliant, luminous eye bringing nature’s outside, inside.

Whether it is a window half the size of a wall, stunning glass panels for doors or an intricate restoration of someone else’s work, what David and Stephen are doing here is magical.

The day the Oxford-educated analyst chucked it in to team up with the incredibly talented fine-arts man, was a good one. Whichever way you look through the glass.

• Contact Williams & Byrne on 01584 856724, or visit their website at www.williamsandbyrne.com

David Williams.