The glass survived the
Reformation, during which many images in English churches were destroyed. In 1642, during the
Civil War, it narrowly avoided destruction when the
Roundhead army was marching on the nearby town of
Cirencester. It was customary at that time for cavalry of both sides to convert churches into temporary stables and barracks with little regard for the fabric of the buildings. The more
puritan elements amongst the Roundheads were opposed to pre-Reformation imagery, which they regarded as
idolatrous; this made it likely that the stained glass would be destroyed. However, on the order of the quick-thinking William Oldysworth, the impropriator (lessee) of the
tithes of Fairford, the windows were hurriedly dismantled and the glass concealed before the troops arrived in the vicinity. "[T]o him the Lovers of ancient Art are indebted for its present Existence" (Bigland, 1791). It may have been during the re-erection of the glass after the Civil War that some of the panes were replaced in the wrong positions. In 1725 the glass was protected by the addition of a "lattice of wire" to each window, paid for at the great cost of £200 by Elizabeth Fermor, a daughter of
William Fermor, 1st Baron Leominster (1648–1711), by his first wife Jane Barker, a daughter of Andrew Barker of Fairford. Andrew Barker was of the ancient Barker (alias De Calverhall) family of Coverall (or
Calverhall) Castle and
Hopton Castle, both in Shropshire, and had acquired the
manor of Fairford in about 1660. A few of the panes were damaged during a storm in November 1703; they were either repaired (some being modified) or replaced. In 1889–90 twenty-six windows were repaired and re-leaded. During the
Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, the stained-glass windows were removed and stored in a cellar for safekeeping. A conservation and restoration programme began in 1988 and finished in 2010. Clear glass now protects the old glass. ==Descriptions==