Rowtor Chapel

Birchover Parish Church, St. Michael's, also known as Rowtor Chapel, located in the High Peak area of Derbyshire, is a small stone church built in the early 18th century. In 1977, Brian Clarke, then living in the adjacent vicarage, designed, fabricated and installed three stained glass windows, presented as a gift to the church.

In 'Weissnichtwo: Brian Clarke and the Global Sublime', Carol Jacobi writes in 2011:

‘The form and subject of Clarke’s motifs explore the visual qualities of the emblem, an image which is a sign of itself, which strikes the mind immediately and all at once. In 1977, Clarke replaced religious images in the stained glass medallions of the windows of Birchover Church, Derbyshire with crosses multiplied to form ladders and grids. The cross distils the emblem to a very simple and potent form, the intersection of horizontal and vertical centres the eye. Its self-evident, geometric logic relates to the language of the built environment in which Clarke’s paintings or glass work are viewed. It also relates to the language of art, the crosses that fix points during observational drawing.'