M. E. Aldrich Rope

M.E. Aldrich Rope (Margaret Edith Rope) (29 July 1891 – 5 March 1988) was a British stained glass artist in the Arts and Crafts movement tradition active between 1910 and 1964. She should not be confused with her cousin, Margaret Agnes Rope of Shrewsbury, another British stained glass artist in the same tradition, active from 1910 until the Second World War. By comparison, she was more prolific an artist with a style that evolved from a recognisable Arts and Crafts school style to something simpler and more modern in her later years.

Margaret Agnes Rope and Margaret Edith Rope were cousins, sharing a grandfather, George Rope of Grove Farm, Blaxhall, Suffolk (1814-1912) and grandmother, Anne (née Pope) (1821-1882). The younger Margaret was the 5th child of Arthur Mingay Rope (himself George and Anne's 5th child: 1850-1945) and Agnes Maud (née Aldrich: 1855-1943), born on 29 July 1891. She had a number of artistic relatives at Leiston and Blaxhall, Suffolk: apart from her cousin Margaret Agnes Rope, there were her uncle, George Thomas Rope, R.A., landscape painter and naturalist, her aunt Ellen Mary Rope, sculptor and sister Dorothy, another sculptor. In the family, her nickname was "Tor", for tortoise and she used a tortoise to sign some of her windows, particularly in her later years.

She was educated at Wimbledon High School, Chelsea School of Art and LCC Central School of Arts & Crafts, where she specialised in stained glass under Karl Parsons and Alfred Drury. From about 1911, she started working at The Glass House (Fulham) with her cousin, Margaret Agnes Rope, for example on the set of windows for SS Peter and Paul, Newport, Shropshire. To distinguish herself from her namesake cousin, she used the professional name of M.E.Aldrich Rope (incorporating her mother's maiden name) or M.E.A.Rope. One of her friends was J.Harold Gibbons (church architect) and this connection led to her first major commission for St Chad's Church, Far Headingley, Leeds, her first large commission and among her greatest works.

For much of her active artistic life she lived in various houses in Deodar Road, Putney, which was something of an artists' colony at that period. Around 1926, she moved to No 61, also occupied by Caroline Townshend and Joan Howson. She was also a close friend of Wilhelmina Geddes. Later, in World War II, she moved to No 81, until it was bombed. In the post-war period she was at No. 89, where she had a studio, workshop and kiln (also used by Rachel de Montmorency). She shared the house with Clare Dawson, a friend and pupil. Late in her life, she became a Roman Catholic. In mid-1978, at the age of 87, she left Putney and returned to live in Suffolk on the family farm. She died on 9 March 1988, aged 96, after suffering a protracted period of Alzheimer's Disease.

Spanning a period of over 50 years, her artistic production was largely destined for Anglican churches (especially Anglo-Catholic) with a few Roman Catholic ones as well. 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.