Margaret Agnes Rope

The two Margaret Ropes were first cousins, granddaughters of George Rope of Grove Farm, Blaxhall, Suffolk (1814-1912) and his wife Anne (née Pope) (1821-1882). The elder Margaret Rope, Margaret Agnes Rope, was the second child of Henry John Rope, M.D (1847-1899) and Agnes Maud (née Burd: 1857- 1948). "Marga" was her nickname. She was born on 20 June 1882 and christened Margaret Agnes at St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury on 7 July. Her elder brother was Henry Edward George Rope. It was an Anglican family but, soon after her husband's early death in 1899, her mother converted to Roman Catholicism (along with 5 of her 6 children). She brought her children up in some degree of poverty, exacerbated by her father's will, which denied money to any descendant "in religion". Of the children, two became nuns (herself and Monica) and one a priest (Fr. Harry Rope). Two other siblings were Irene Vaughan, a botanist, and Squadron Leader Michael Rope, an aeronautical engineer, who died in the R101 airship disaster. Only one, Denys, a doctor of medicine, continued as an Anglican, following his father.[1]

She was educated at home until she went in 1900 to the Birmingham Municipal School of Art.[2] Studies included enamelling and lettering. From 1901, she studied stained glass under Henry Payne. She had an illustrious career at the school including a number of scholarships, plus many awards in the National Competition for Schools of Art. In 1909, she left the school and worked from home (The Priory, Shrewsbury) especially on the large west window of Shrewsbury Cathedral, the first of seven she did there. From 1911, she worked (sometimes with her cousin M. E. Aldrich Rope and other artists such as Joseph Edward Nuttgens[3]) at The Glass House (Fulham) until 1923 when, on 14 September, she became a Carmelite nun, Sister Margaret of the Mother of God. As a nun, she was first at Woodbridge, Suffolk, later at Rushmere, Ipswich, and, after the Second World War, at Quidenham Hall, Norfolk. At Woodbridge, she was able to continue her work, sending glass to and fro by train to the Glass House in Fulham for cutting, firing and leading up. This continued until 1939. After the war and the move to Quidenham, she was not well enough to do more than help with the designs for the windows for the monastery church, which were made by her cousin. She died on 6 December 1953 aged 71.[4]

Although she is buried at Quidenham, a memorial window to her can be found at the Church of the Holy Family and St Michael at Kesgrave, near Ipswich, itself a memorial to her brother Michael Rope. This memorial was a window adapted by her cousin from an incomplete work of hers. Her archive was held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery but has since been transferred.

She is reputed to have been a strong character, smoking and motorbike-riding being among her pastimes before she took her vows.[5] Her stained glass work also shows strength of character as well as artistry in design and execution of a high order. 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.[6]

Apart from student pieces on secular themes, her artistic output was exclusively for churches, nearly all Roman Catholic. Common themes of her windows were the Catholic English Martyrs, the Annunciation and the lives of the Saints. In a shorter career than her cousin, only 30-odd years, she inevitably produced fewer windows - around 60. The most notable examples are listed below with locations and some illustrations. First are windows in the United Kingdom, followed by those in other countries, in alphabetical order of county or country. Inaccessible windows have been omitted. Asterisks indicate windows of particular importance.[7]

A major exhibition of Rope's work, under the title Heavenly Lights, opened at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery in September 2016.[11] In August 2019 the museum unveiled a new stained glass window created by local artist Nathalie Hildegarde Liege inspired by the exhibition.[12]

• 
  Detail from the Prodigal Son window, St Mary's, Lanark: six episodes from the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Here he "fain would fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat"
• 
  English Martyrs window at Holy Name, Oxton, Birkenhead
• 
  SS Elizabeth, Mary & John the Baptist at Holy Name, Oxton, Birkenhead
• 
  St George and the Dragon, St Michael's, Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire
• 
  Memorial window to her sister's two children, Our Lady's, Llandovery, Dyfed, Wales
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  The Great West Window in Shrewsbury Cathedral, her first major commission, 1910
• 
  Detail of the west window in Shrewsbury Cathedral depicting the martyrdom of Saint Winefride
• 
  Detail of the Saint Peter window at SS Peter & Paul, Newport, Shropshire

• Building News, 29 January 1909, Vol 96, p. 178
• Studio Year-book of Decorative Art 1909 p. 69
• By Hammer and Hand: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham, ed. Alan Crawford, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1984, pp. 125–6
• "Margaret Agnes Rope (1883-1953): A new perspective on a unique stained glass artist", by Marian Crenshaw Austin, MA thesis in Stained Glass Conservation and Heritage Management, University of York, England, 2010
• http://www.stthomas-woodbridge.co.uk/History/Preamble.htm [retrieved on April 14, 2015] Section:"The Carmelite Convent"
• Peter Cormack, Arts and Crafts Stained Glass Yale University Press, August 2015, ISBN 9780300209709
• Arthur Rope, Margaret Rope of Shrewsbury Pangapilot Publications, March 2016, ISBN 9781526201324
• Shrewsbury Catholic Voice, Issue 5, Easter 2012, pp. 7–9:"The Marvellous Margaret Rope"
• Shrewsbury Today, issue 2, 15 July 2014, pp. 2–3
• http://www.arthur.rope.clara.net [retrieved on May 28, 2015]
• http://www.suffolkpainters.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=551 [retrieved on April 14, 2015]
• https://www.flickr.com/groups/margarets/pool [retrieved on May 12, 2015]
• http://www.stainedglassrecords.org/F.asp?FId=1008&CId=0 [retrieved on May 12, 2015]
• http://www.artbiogs.co.uk/1/artists/rope-margaret-agnes [retrieved on April 4, 2015]

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