Stained-Glass Windows

The stained-glass windows that are now pride of place in the RGS Library, were originally commissioned and installed in the Rye Hill building. There are four tall and two rosette-shaped windows and their design tells the story of our origins and royal connections.

Each window includes the names of members of the Newcastle Town Council in 1870, as well as commemorating various Old Novocastrians and former Headmasters:

  • Robert Fowberry, First Master 1738
  • Nicholas Ridley, Bishop
  • William Elstob, Antiquarian
  • Richard Dawes, Master 1738
  • Mark Akenside, Poet
  • Sir Robert Chambers, of Bengal
  • Hugh Moises, Master 1749
  • Sir William Scott, Judge
  • John Brand, Historian
  • James Snape, Master 1860
  • Lord Collingwood, Admiral
  • Lord Eldon, Chancellor

The people shown in the four tall windows are:

  • Thomas Horsley, Mayor of Newcastle and our founder
  • King Henry VIII, monarch when the school was founded in 1525
  • Queen Elizabeth I, monarch whose Great Charter gave us our Royal status
  • Queen Victoria, monarch when the Rye Hill building was opened

In the image of Horsley, he is seen clutching a scroll which reveals his signature and the date June 14th 1533. 

One of the rosette windows contains the emblem of the Hospital of St. Mary the Virgin in the centre. It commemorates Henry Ewbanke, Master 1601, and Reverend RA Thompson, Master 1869. The second rosette window has the Newcastle Coat of Arms with motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans'. It commemorates Francis Anderson, Mayor 1601 and J Morrison Mayor, 1869.

RGS stained glass windows, newly installed in the North Wall of the Science Block, 1956. From the 1956 Speech Day programme. RGS Archives

RGS and the windows parted company in 1906 when we moved to Eskdale Terrace. The old building continued to be used as a school, Rutherford Girls' School. It narrowly missed destruction when the building was scheduled for demolition. The initiative to save it came from Lionel Markham, one of the School's Governors and an Old Novo. He persuaded the City Education Committee to sell it to RGS for £250, with the money raised by London ONA.

The original plan was for the windows to be installed above the main entrance to the school at Eskdale Terrace. However, they were instead installed on the staircase of the newly built Science Block in 1956. Later renovations in 1990 meant they were moved to a more conspicuous location in the lecture theatre. This building was demolished in place of the new Agora and Library, which is where they now live.