Glass in Newcastle/Sunderland
Glass was an important part of Newcastle's industry. During the 1700s Newcastle was famous for the production of quality flint glass, and in particular for Beilby. By 1827 Newcastle was the largest glass producing centre in the world, with 41 glasshouses (see source). By 1833 Sunderland produced more bottles than anywhere else in the North East, with each bottle maker making over 4000 items a week. By 1860 over 1000 glassmakers were employed in more than 20 companies (see source).

It was quite logical that stained glass would also flourish in this environment. In fact, the first stained glass to be produced in Britain was made in this area by French craftsmen from Gaul in AD674. Benedict Biscop, Abbot of the new monastery at Wearmouth, invited them to make the windows for St Peter's Church. Wearside became one of the earliest glassmaking centres in this country. (see source).

Possibly manufactured by Barnett
Henry Barnett, whose father and grandfather were both stained glass makers in York, trained in Newcastle with William Wailes, a major North-Eastern stained glass manufacturer and proprietor of what was the largest stained glass factory in Britain in the 1840s and 1850s. Barnett set up his own firm in Newcastle in 1858, when he was 25, and continued in business until his death in 1888. There is no reference to Barnett in the National Archives or the Stained Glass Museum at Ely Cathedral.

Barnett was a designer with Wailes until he set up a manufacturing business of his own, in 1858, which was some time after Holy Trinity was built. However, the speed of the church's construction (15 months) might well have required the windows - which usually took well over a year to make - to be fitted some time after construction was complete. It is therefore possible that the east window was originally fitted with plain leaded panels, as per all the other church windows, and later upgraded to stained glass, possibly by Barnett, with the extra expense having had time to be raised within the parish.

Possibly manufactured by Wailes
One of the foremost stained glass manufacturers in the Newcastle area was Wailes (1808-1881), with whom Barnett trained, so it is possible that Holy Trinity's windows were designed by Barnett but manufactured by Wailes. A recently restored Wailes window in Chester Cathedral shows similarities in design with Holy Trinity's.

Since Wailes was born in 1808, and did not begin making glass until 1841, he could not have produced the Trinity windows at its time of building. As explained above, however, it is quite possible that the east window was added some years after the church was completed.

History of Wailes (read full source information)
William Wailes was born in Newcastle in 1808 and originally took up a grocery and tea-dealing business. Though he had studied stained glass in 1830 at Munich, it was not until 1841 that he gave himself over to glass manufacture. Previously he advertised, with the food provisions, decorative enamels for sale. (The grocers was taken-over by his original assistant).

Wailes set up in various Newcastle premises - though was soon to become one of the largest employers in the field outside of London. Most of his output is to be found in local North East churches - but by no means is this exclusively so. Several designers were employed by Wailes such as Francis Wilson Oliphant R.A. (1818-1859), Henry Mark Barnett and George Joseph Baguley (1824-1915). (Some of these men were later to set up their own respected studios, such as Baguley and Barnett separately). The stained glass made by Wailes' firm is particularly noted for its following of mediaeval styles and colours - indeed the mediaeval revivalist Augustine Welby Northmore Pugin (1801-1852) who designed the Houses of Parliament, London 1840-1860, frequently used Wailes glass exclusively from 1842 till his death.

Wailes' studio designed and made its own glass for new churches. They also undertook the restoration of medieval stained glass at York Minster, and worked around existing windows, as at Ely Cathedral. Wailes was among the exhibitors of The Great Exhibition of 185, at London's original Crystal Palace. Wailes' son-in-law Thomas Rankine Strang (1835-1899) took the firm on as a viable concern after Wailes' death in the 1910s - though he was constrained by the style of mediaeval revivalist work, which by now had fallen out of fashion.

See Wailes glass in Buckinghamshire
Read an article about William Wailes
Saltwell Towers, Gateshead, built by William Wailes