Crafts and Craftspeople

Sally Smith

The most notable commissioners of fine craftwork in East Lothian were the churches. Silverware, woodcarving, tapestries and embroidered pulpit falls are all represented, but stained glass predominates. Fine examples are the two windows at Prestonpans (St. Andrew's Episcopal), three at East Linton (Traprain and Prestonkirk, 1959) and another at North Berwick (St. Andrew Blackadder, 1962) all made by William Wilson (1905-1972) one of Scotland's foremost stained glass artists. His contemporary, Sax Shaw (1916-2000), made the stained glass windows at Haddington (St. Mary's Collegiate, 1973), Prestonpans (St Andrew's, 1975) and Tranent (Parish Church) as well as a suspended glass feature for the Abbey Church, North Berwick. When the Loretto chapel in Musselburgh was extended in 1964-5, John Lawrie was commissioned to create a windowed gable by setting blocks of coloured glass in concrete. Dunbar Parish Church was seriously damaged by fire in 1987 and a major restoration project included two large (2m x 6m) stained glass windows by Shona McInnes, and three apse windows made by Douglas Hogg. Other examples of glass as well as ceramic sculptures and silverware can be found in the new Roman Catholic churches built in the 1960s and 70s at Prestonpans and Tranent.