Stained glass windows decorate large cathedrals and humble parish churches alike, and if you’re anything like us here at Sagas they can be the highlight of any visit. So, as the theme for this month is women and faith it seemed the perfect time to look at two women who made stained glass windows. Margaret Rope and her cousin also called Margret Rope, no that isn’t a typo, they really were both called Margaret Rope. The Margarets were the granddaughters of George Rope and his wife Anne. Between them they created numerous widows in the Arts and Crafts Movement, both on their own and in collaboration. Read on to learn more and look at some pretty pictures.
We’re starting with Margaret Agnes Rope, the older of the cousins.
(Margaret Rope’s Lumen Christi – self-caricature of the artist – https://margaret-agnes-rope.co.uk/2019/07/23/images-of-marga/)
Margaret, nicknamed ‘Marga’, was born on the 20th of June, 1882. She was the second of six children born to Henry John Rope, M.D and his wife Agnes Maud. Initially Margaret was raised in the Anglican faith, but after the death of her father in 1899, her mother along with five of her children, including Margaret converted to Roman Catholicism. The conversion caused the family to live in “…some degree of poverty”, because of a clause in Henry’s will which “…denied money to any descendant in religion.” Margaret was educated at home until 1900 when she began attending the Birmingham Municipal School of Art, where her studies included enamelling and lettering. From 1901 she studied stained glass under Henry Payne and went on to win a number of scholarships, and awards in the National Competition for Schools of Art.
(Stained glass window at Our Lady’s, Llandovery – Memorial window to her sister’s two children, Our Lady’s, Llandovery, Dyfed, Wales. From:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Llandovery_memorial_window_Martgaret_Rope.jpg)
Having left school in 1909, Margaret worked from her home creating stained glass, including the first of seven pieces she created for the west window of Shrewsbury Cathedral. From 1911 she worked at The Glass House in Fulham alongside other artists including her cousin the other Margaret Rope who worked under the name M. E. Aldrich Rope. Margaret left The Glass House in 1923 when she became a Carmelite nun, taking the name Sister Margaret of the Mother of God. She was not the only one of her siblings to take Holy Orders; her sister Monica was also a nun and her brother, Harry was a priest. Margaret’s first nunnery was Woodbridge, in Suffolk, from where she was able to continue working by sending glass to the Glass House via train where it was cut, fired and leaded before being sent back. After Woodbridge Margaret moved to Rushmere in Ipswich where she remained until after WW2 when she moved to Quidenham Hall in Norfolk. By the time Margaret reached Quidenham she was in ill health and was only able to design the monastery windows which were then made by her cousin. Margaret died on the 6th of December, aged seventy-one. She is buried at Quidenham, where a memorial window to her can be found at the Church of the Holy Family and St Michael at Kesgrave. The window which she had created in memory of her mother and was adapted by her cousin, Margaret after her death.
(The Great West Window in Shrewsbury Cathedral, her first major commission, 1910 – From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_West_Window_Shrewsbury_Cathedral.jpg)
Little is known of Margaret’s personality, but after her death her youngest sister Irene wrote that she was “…tremendously daring, impatient, adventurous, intolerant even and she disciplined it all into the finest steel of selflessness.” Before taking her vows Margaret was known to smoke and ride motorbikes. Her work gives us a further glimpse into the person she was; “Much of her best work is typified by strong colours, jewelled intensity and consummate glass painting skills. The sense of individual personality that shines from many of the faces she portrayed is powerful.”
(St George and the Dragon, St Michael’s, Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire – From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_George_Clifton_Hampden.jpg)
All of Margaret’s windows were for churches, with almost all being for Roman Catholic churches. In her thirty year career she produced around sixty windows, a common theme in them was Catholic English Martyrs, the Annunciation and the lives of the Saints.
Now onto her cousin; Margaret Edith Rope.
(M.E. Aldrich Rope drawing c1930s – From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tor_drawing_2.jpg)
Margaret Edith Rope was born on the 29th of July 1891, she was the fifth child of Arthur Mingay Rope and his wife Agnes Maud. Amongst her family she had the nickname ‘Tor’ for tortoise, she would later use a tortoise to sign some of her windows. Margaret came from an artist family, other than her cousin Margaret, her uncle, George Thomas Rope, was a landscape painter and naturalist, and both her aunt Ellen Mary Rope, sister Dorothy were sculptures. Margaret attended Wimbledon High School before going to Chelsea School of Art, and the LCC Central School of Arts and Crafts, where she specialised in stained glass under Karl Parsons and Alfred Drury.
(Detail from the Creation window, S.Chad,Far Headingley,Leeds, 1923 – From:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Left_side_angel_S.Chad.jpg)
Around 1911 Margaret began working at The Glass House in Fulham alongside her cousin, to distinguish herself from her cousin, she used the professional name of M. E. Aldrich Rope, which incorporated her mother’s maiden name. Margaret was friends with the church architect J.Harold Gibbons and it was through him she received her first major commission for St Chad’s Church in Leeds, many cite this as “…among her greatest works.” During the First World War Margaret joined the Women’s Land Army.
(Detail from the Creation window- “Deer in Paradise” Leeds, 1923 – From:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pano_Leeds_right_centre_middle.jpg)
Whilst working Margaret lived in various houses in Deodar Road, Putney, which was “…something of an artists’ colony in that period.” In 1926 she moved into number sixty-one, sharing the house with stained glass artists Caroline Townshend and Joan Howson. During the Second World War she moved to number eighty-one where she stayed until the unit was bombed. During the conflict, Margaret cared for evacuee children at three hospitals in North Wales. After the war she lived at eighty-nine Deodar Road where she had a studio, workshop and kiln, which she shared with Rachel de Montmorency. In 1978, Margaret moved back to her family home in Suffolk, where she remained until her death on the 9th of March, 1988 at the age of 96. Her last years were difficult as she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
(Adam & Eve From the Creation window – ,Leeds, 1923. From:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pano_Leeds_centre_adameve.jpg)
Margaret had a career that spanned fifty years, with most of her work being sent to Anglican churches. Her style evolved from the Arts and Crafts movement into “…something simpler and more modern.”
(Window by M. E. Aldrich Rope (left) and Margaret Agnes Rope (right) in the period when they shared a studio at the Glass House – From:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blaxhall_porch_window.jpg)
Both of these women created amazing pieces of art that we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy today.
Written by Gemma Apps.
Sources:
http://www.arthur.rope.clara.net/intro.htm
https://www.visitstainedglass.uk/theme/the-two-margaret-rope
Images of Marga | Celebrating Margaret Rope – stained glass-artist (margaret-agnes-rope.co.uk)
File:Llandovery memorial window Martgaret Rope.jpg – Wikimedia Commons
File:Great West Window Shrewsbury Cathedral.jpg – Wikimedia Commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pano_Leeds_right_centre_middle.jpg
Sagas of She 
