St. Alban the Martyr

The St. Thomas of Canterbury Window


This page is part of our project "Revealing St Alban's Hidden Heritage" supported by a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to players of The National Lottery.


Chosen for a memorial to Thomas Pollock, the central porion of this window by Frank Albert Smallpiece was installed in St Patrick's Church, Frank Street in December 1900.

The surrounding glass added when it was installed here in 1983 is by Tony Naylor, glazier, in collaboration with architect John Buchnall of the John Osborne Partnership.

St. Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas à Becket) is shown in his holding a copy of the Constitutions of Clarendon that has been torn in two. The Constitutions of Clarendon were a set of legislative procedures passed by Henry II of England in 1164 consisting of 16 articles intended to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and curb the power of the Church courts and the extent of papal authority in England. It was resistance to this extension of secular authority over the Church that made Thomas an opponent of the king, leading to his assassination.