Plaque honour for Shrewsbury artist

A plaque will be unveiled on the wall of Priory House at the Welsh Bridge Campus of Shrewsbury Colleges Group in honour of stained-glass artist Margaret Agnes Rope, who was born in Shrewsbury in 1882 and lived in the property.

She designed windows for more than 60 churches across the world, including sites in South Africa and Australia. Her work is now held in museums as prestigious as the New York Metropolitan Museum.

Although Shrewsbury Civic Society has awarded plaques in the past to acknowledge architectural achievement, this is the first time it will issue a plaque to honour an individual.

Bibbs Cameron, a former vice-chairman of the society and the co-organiser of this project, said: “In the year of the centenary of the vote being granted to women, it’s fitting to celebrate the work and creativity of an inspiring woman, one whose accomplishments have been too often forgotten.”

Principal and CEO of Shrewsbury Colleges Group, James Staniforth said: “The plaque will serve as a reminder to our students that talent and drive are powerful qualities. Margaret Rope lived in an era when lone women, such as she, had limited chances of success – but she created magnificent, enduring works of art.”

The plaque, which will be unveiled on November 1, has been sited in such a way that it can be seen by the general public walking on the adjacent river-path.

Priory House, then known as The Priory, was the home to the Rope family from 1901.

Though Margaret set up a studio-base for herself in London from 1911, she never took up a permanent residence in the city; and was always returning ‘home’. After 1921 she was drawn to the religious life, and entered a nunnery in 1923. It was an ‘enclosed’ convent, and so she never saw Shrewsbury again. However, she continued to work from within the convent walls until the late 1930s.

Her mother continued to live at Priory House until the 1950s.

Seven of Margaret Rope’s greatest windows can be seen in Shrewsbury Cathedral, 500 yards from Priory House. She used the house’s large kitchen table as a work-bench on which to make the designs for the cathedral’s Great West Window.

The plaque project comes just two years after the ‘Heavenly Lights’ exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum, which profiled the life and work of Margaret Rope.

Shrewsbury Town Councillor Nathaniel Green, whose ward covers this area of Shrewsbury, and who has allowed a grant from his councillor-fund, said: “I am pleased to support this project. It is very important that Margaret Agnes Rope is remembered as a great Shrewsbury artist, whose work can inspire future generations.”