page_title: Dom Charles Norris
section_title: Life and work
hierarchical_section_title: Dom Charles Norris / Life and work
context_page_description: Dom Charles Norris OSB was an influential artist who created works in stained glass and dalle de verre for Roman Catholic churches in the UK. He is thought to be the most prolific artist working in dalle de verre in the UK in the 20th century. His contributions to listed Modernist buildings are an integral part of their value and are mentioned in their listings.
context_section_description: Dom Charles Norris (1909-2004) was a Benedictine monk and glass artist He was born Louis Charles Norris and he studied at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s. He entered Buckfast Abbey in 1930 as the age of 21 and began to work as a stained glass artist in 1933. He supervised a team of monks to rebuild the abbey, including the east window in dalle de verre in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. 
  Pierre Fourmaintraux is said to have brought the dalle de verre technique to Britain before joining James Powell and Sons (later Whitefriars Glass Studio) in 1956. He trained Dom Charles Norris in the technique, with Norris becoming one of the most prolific British proponents. Norris's design of the east window is mentioned in the List Entry Summary for Buckfast Abbey on the Historic England site. 
  In addition to his work in the workshops of Buckfast Abbey, Dom Charles Norris also had an association with the workshop at Prinknash Abbey and with Aylesford Priory in Kent. 
  "After 1949 Aylesford Priory in  Kent became a creative hub, attracting artists such as Adam Kossowski (a Polish émigré, and survivor of the Soviet gulag, Fig.12), Philip  Lindsey Clark, Michael Clark, and the glass  maker Dom Charles Norris of Buckfast Abbey."
  — Andrew Derrick for Historic England, 19th- and 20th-Century Roman Catholic Churches Introductions to Heritage Assets
  Dom Charles Norris completed windows for a large number of churches including those at Perranporth Our Lady's, Lillington and Our Lady of Fatima, Harlow.  
  A review by the Diocese of Plymouth and English Heritage notes: "The latter Waldo Maitland’s Our Lady of the Portal and St Piran, Truro (1973) is one of a large number of churches in the Diocese with stained glass designed and made under the supervision of Dom Charles Norris at Buckfast Abbey (an early example at Falmouth, dating from 1948, is illustrated on the front cover)."
caption: Stained glass window at Buckfast Abbey, 1965
exif: {}