'estoning Tales from Canterbury Cathedral

Following the successful publication of £The Parish of Westoning Chronicle 2002£ in November 2002 its editor, Henry Jennings, decided to seek£ further details about an incident told in the book when a £miracle was reputed to have taken place £in Westoning, circa 1214, with the help of£St. Thomas a Becket.
 See pages 96 to 97 of the chronicle.

A letter was sent to the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral in late November 2002 and a reply was received in April 2003 from the Cathedral Archivist.

As will be seen from the full reply given below, the book record is substantially correct with further details on the actual location of the windows within the cathedral.

Should anyone actually visit the cathedral in the foreseeable future then the editor would be very interested in their comments that might well be added to our present parish archives on this subject. (01525-717517 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Email received as follows:-

From: - Heather Forbes
 Cathedral Archivist
 24 April 2004

To: -

 Henry Jennings

Subject: -
 
Canterbury Cathedral£ stained glass windows

Dear Mr. Jennings

Thank you for your letter addressed to the Dean which has been passed to the Archives for reply. The honorary cathedral Historian has kindly done the work for you.

The Cure of Eilward of Westoning

The panels telling this story are still in place in Miracle window north III, in the north quire ambulatory (aisle). Three scenes are within a roundel and two are in lunettes left and right below. The date is about 1200.

1. A man with a bundle on his back brought before a judge 

   ( left in roundel )

2. Judge seated under a tree-prisoner on ground

   (right in roundel )

3. Man in bed. St. Thomas appears and points to his eyes

    ( left lunette)

4. Eilward gives thanks at St. Thomas tomb

   ( right lunette)

5. Eilward gives thanks to St. Thomas's tomb

   
   ( right lunette)

Inscriptions (translated from Latin)

1. He is sentenced to a pledge , judgement and an injust penalty
2. His eyes are pulled out, his members amputated.
3. His members are restored and £swell up and gradually grow again
4. (Inscriptions lost)
5. The people stand by as he narrated the mighty works of the saint.

The glass is described in Madelaine Caviness, the Windows of Christ Church, Canterbury (1981), pp 189-191, with figures, 279-85