St Stephen’s William Morris window restored
PARISHIONERS at St Stephen’s Church are thrilled to see the return of their 150-year-old William Morris stained-glass windows.
Repairs to a number of stained-glass windows by the artist William Morris are due to finish tomorrow.
Vice-dean of Guernsey and vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Fr John Moore, said that his parishioners were gobsmacked by the work that had been completed.
‘We had mass this morning. It was really difficult to keep everyone’s attention because they kept craning their necks round to have a look at the centrepiece, which is the Tree of Jesse depicting the family tree of Jesus and to see it so colourful.
‘We’re absolutely amazed by the work and delighted with the restoration,’ he said.
The project came about when the curator of the William Morris Society, Helen Elletson, came to visit the church for its 150th anniversary in 2015 and, on seeing the windows, exclaimed that they had something really valuable.
‘We’ve being fundraising and restoring it since and now it is in the final stages,’ added Fr Moore.
‘We’re very grateful to everyone who has supported and funded us.’
An £85,000 cash injection was fundraised to complete it and five months of work on the windows was done by specialist company Holly Well Glass in Somerset and the windows are now nearly restored, back in place and will be able to be enjoyed by all.
Holly Well Glass director Jack Clare said he had been pleased to work on such beautiful windows.
‘It’s a very arduous task restoring them,’ he said.
‘A lot of work goes into cleaning them and repairing and replacing missing glass but it’s nearly finished and we’re really excited to see it in its full glory.’
