THE November 28 meeting was a memorable talk by Keith Cattell entitled One Thousand Years of Stained Glass.

He extolled its secret and mysterious quality and explained the complex compositions of stained and painted glass.

The slides included Augsburg Cathedral's rare surviving medieval windows.

Much earlier Bede wrote of glaziers and glass being needed for Jarrow Monastery but only remnants of this very colourful glass, broken by Viking marauders, has recently been unearthed.

York has the oldest English stained glass windows, thought to date from 1075.

During the early Gothic period uniform colour was achieved by adding metal oxides to the raw materials. Later flashed glass made by fusing a layer of colour to a layer of clear glass while both were hot gave more variety and life to the designs.

This was a delicate process requiring renewal.

As light passed through the glass, it made jewels of glittering colour which echo the descriptions of a heavenly city adorned with precious gems and showed its mysterious qualities.

Cathedrals have outstanding examples for while early pictorial windows used Bible stories with symbolic colours - red representing evil, blue representing goodness and green kept for imaginative characters as in the nativity scene at Canterbury it was now possible to use a wider range of colours, notably yellow and silver hues.

Although much stained glass had been destroyed in the time of Henry VIII and Cromwell, a 19th century Gothic revival brought about a revival of interest.

William Morris' art and craft movement and the Art Nouveau movement brought new life to stained glass.

Their romantic style, characterised by swirling, sensuous lines, was similar to that of Tiffany who produced beautiful stained glass.

More recently, Marc Chagall, John Piper and the Irish Harry Clarke have contributed to the development of this wonderful medium.

The next talk on Friday at 7.30pm has the intriguing title An Unusual Job For A Lady given by Marion Canning at Trinity High School.

It will be followed by coffee and mince pies. Visitors welcome. Call 01386 792082 for details.