the elder, Margaret Agnes Rope, was "Marga"
Welcome to the Margaret Rope Stained Glass website
They
were cousins, born within 9 years of each other at the end of the nineteenth
century and were active from the second to the eighth decades of the twentieth.
To tell them apart, I have called them by their family nicknames:
the
elder, Margaret Agnes Rope, was "Marga"
and
the younger, Margaret Edith Rope (a.k.a. M.E.Aldrich Rope),
"Tor"
They were among the score or more women stained glass artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement and they produced work that can be seen in many churches and other buildings in England, Scotland and Wales as well as in Australia, Canada, Italy, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Trinidad.
Three books are now available in various formats: click here
If you simply want to feast your eyes on a random collection of on-line photos, go to the flickr Margaret Rope gallery. This collection from many photographers represents the vast majority of the windows of the two Margarets and is their living retrospective exhibition. There are almost 1000 images in total. Some of those photos are also accessible via the list of works for each artist: see menu above.
On this site, you will find:
• lists of places where their windows are, with links to photos of more windows
• information about their lives + family photos
• a family tree excerpt: how the Margarets were related
• a UK map - where you can find examples of their work
• a page of Links - other Margaret Rope articles and websites
and there is also information about two other artistic relatives:
• George Thomas Rope naturalist and artist, their uncle
• Ellen Mary Rope sculptor and designer, their aunt
(over 700
images already)
If you can help supply better images, please be in touch by email
especially from Biships Stortford,
Bournmouth,
Chichester,
Falkirk,
Haggerston,
Latchford, Llandovery,
Molesworth,
Upholland,
Oxted
Stockport,
Malta,
Trinidad:
see listingsI am continuining to develop and (I hope) improve this site and the information base underlying it. If you can offer help in the form of photos, corrections or new information, please email me, as follows:
(The o is a letter not a zero) then add:
I
am very grateful for much help already received, along with some
precious photos. Particular thanks to Mary Nottingham,
my sister, and to Peter Cormack, formerly of the William Morris Gallery for
the original list of Tor's works and to Glennys Wild, formerly of the Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery for access to Marga's archive there.
Since the site launch,
I have had many interesting contacts and I would particularly like to thank
Dr. John Salmon for his expert photographic contributions: the site is much
improved by his work from churches in London
and further afield . These include churches in
Dollis Hill, Grange Park, Highgate, Munster Square, Northolt Park, Bromley,
Chiswick and Wapping Lane - and Quidenham and Clippesby in Norfolk. Also thanks
to the help of Robert Eberhard and many others, not least of whom is the indefatigable
Simon Knott, creator of the Norfolk and Suffolk Churches websites, now spreading
his wings in Essex and Cambridgeshire..
This site is maintained by Marga's cousin and Tor's nephew, Arthur Rope (see above for email).