Mary Adshead’s dynamic mural, To the End of Time, takes up the entire east wall of the parish church of St Francis, Luton. At its apex is Christ’s bowed head, with the symbols of the four evangelists surrounding the cross, and, at the base, scenes of the modern world.

Elisabeth Frink’s bronze lectern for Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral was her first major commission. She was known at the time for her sculptures and drawings of birds – one made while she was a student was exhibited in 1952 and bought immediately by the Tate Gallery – and the lectern was to take the traditional form of an eagle. Unlike these early works, where the figures seemed aggressive but also vulnerable, and often had militaristic overtones, Frink’s lectern eagle is confident, in control of its powers – Spence thought it looked ‘as if it has just settled there after a long flight’. Its outspread wings, whose blocky, textured feathers Frink created by setting kindling into the plaster, echo the flock of wooden thorn-like shapes in the canopy of the choir stalls (built to designs by Spence’s partner Antony Blee) behind.

Hans Feibusch, a Jewish artist who fled Germany in 1933, became the most prolific muralist in the history of the Church of England. Through his relationship with George Bell, the Bishop of Chicester, he created murals for many churches, often those built or restored after the war. His murals combine the palettes, techniques and forms of European Modernism – Expressionism and Cubism – with those of the early Italian Renaissance, while speaking to the spiritual concerns of the post-war church. Feibusch saw his work as essentially collaborative – not only with his assistant, Phyllis Bray, and the architect, but also with the worshipping congregation. ‘A work of art in church is there to help the worshipper, to lead their thoughts from the tumultuous outer world towards an inner spiritual one.’ (Hans Feibusch, ‘Mural Painting in Churches’, Studio, 1954)

The murals at St Michael and All Angels were among the first works to be created by Hayward after he established himself as a freelance artist in 1961. Their blues, greens and golds were to become characteristic of Hayward’s stained glass for which he became famous in later years. The murals use the marouflage technique: the images are painted in the artist’s studio and then cut out and glued to the wall of the church. Each was designed specifically for the space it was to occupy. When they were installed in 1962, they were said to be the largest modern set of murals anywhere in the world.

Ceri Richard's reredos and stained glass were conceived as a single triptych, abstractly flowing one into another. The tabernacle has more obvious imagery: the heavens, the chalice and the cross.

The Chagall windows at Tudeley were commissioned by Sir Henry and Lady d'Avigdor-Goldsmid in memory of Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, their daughter who died in 1963 at the tragically early age of 21, in a sailing accident off Rye. Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid and her mother had visited the 1961 Louvre exhibition of Chagall's work.

Mural covering the walls of St Benet’s Chaplaincy, Queen Mary, University of London.

Adam Kossowski (1905-1986, Polish) was a Polish refugee who quickly made a career in public works of figurative art in Britain.

This striking sculpture gives a dynamic focus to the church which takes a simple tent-like form. Behind the austere altar table the outstretched arms of the reflected figure invoke a well-proportioned ellipsis on the east wall. 

Made from silver and plated with gold, this abstract work represents a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Known for his many commissions included murals for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and Manchester Cathedral in 1963, Carel Weight was strongly guided by the specific locations of his paintings.

Painted in 1961 for the Church of the same name, Mary is depicted as the strong Mother of Mankind. The child, sleeping peacefully on her arm, represents humanity undisturbed by the chaos of the world, shown in the blazing explosion of the background.

Two windows installed in the Gibbs nave of the Cathedral. All Saints is the East window of South aisle and All Souls the east window of the north aisle.

Jonah Jones' concrete-glass window, baldacchino and mosaics are installed at the Catholic Church of St Patrick, Newport, Gwent. The large window shows the saint in purple archbishop’s vestments.