Digging with dignity: Adam delving, Canterbury Cathedral's wondrous window

This beautiful stained glass window was created around 1176 and still glows with vivid colour and moving humanity. Adam is an ideal portrayal of a medieval peasant. He works the land, bare-chested. His spade digs deep. A tree grows, grey against the blue sky. Work is the curse of Adam, the fate of humanity exiled from Eden. Yet it has dignity in this picture. When the sun catches its colours, the digger shines heroically. In medieval Britain, there were three orders of people, those who pray – the Church – those who fight – the knighthood – and those who labour like Adam to bring food from the land Illustration: Canterbury Cathedral