Coventry: 12,000 medieval stained-glass fragments catalogued
· BehindLines newsroom
Coventry Cathedral and the World Monuments Fund (WMF) have recently finished cataloguing the medieval stained glass held by the cathedral, the cathedral announces in a statement dated 9 November 2026. The collection comprises about 12,000 fragments, brought together in one place for the first time in over ten years.
Remains of the destroyed cathedral
According to Wikipedia, St Michael's church, which became a cathedral in 1918, was almost entirely destroyed in the bombing of Coventry on 14 November 1940; its ruins stand beside the present cathedral. According to the cathedral, the fragments belonged to the windows of the medieval building. They show scenes from the Passion of Christ, saints and the twelve apostles, as well as kneeling donors and heraldic shields bearing monograms.
Work in two phases
A first phase, completed in November 2012, took the fragments out of storage to document and conserve them, with a catalogue and an analysis of the imagery written by Heather Gilderdale Scott, an expert in medieval glass. Most pieces then stayed for more than ten years in three storage areas. This time the glass was placed in new bespoke cabinets: each tray received a number and a location, and was photographed and entered into a digital inventory.
An online viewing in November
Too fragile to be displayed, the fragments can be explored online during November, thanks to a selection offered through the Bloomberg Connects app, during the season of remembrance marking the 86th anniversary of the bombing. The cathedral plans to turn this into a permanent digital archive later, after its "Building Hope" project. Andrew Hines, who heads the cathedral's heritage and interpretation work, explains that the work allowed the cathedral, for the first time, to consider these fragments from the angles of conservation, research and contact with the public. According to the cathedral, the complete inventory of every tray allows the collection to be better managed and protected, and the photographs will serve as a basis for new research.
What to keep in mind
Wikipedia is used here only for the destruction of the old cathedral; everything about the work comes from the cathedral's statement, dated 9 November, with no independent confirmation. The cathedral presents the project not as a final point, but as a foundation for future research and wider access to the collection.