Church and chapel glass, taken out and releaded

TAKEN APART

A window that has stood for a hundred and forty years comes out of the wall in sections, goes back to the bench, and is taken to pieces before anything is mended.

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02

The lead goes, not the glass.

Lead came has a working life of about a century and a quarter. It goes brittle, the panel starts to bow, and the weight of it does the rest.

125 yrsWhat a leading is good for

03

The same glass, in new lead.

  • Every original piece is kept and numbered
  • New came, milled to the old profile
  • Cemented, wired and back in the same opening
04

A chapel roof came off in 1987.

Two windows went into a barn and stayed there. Putting them back is the reason this workshop exists, and it took eleven years.

Everything below is what happens between the wall and the bench

Between the wall and the bench

Nine weeks, most of it laid out flat.

A panel spends more time being drawn and recorded than being repaired. Everything below happens before a soldering iron is switched on.

  1. 01

    Rubbing

    A full size rubbing is taken of the panel in the wall, so the pattern survives even if the panel does not.

  2. 02

    Removal

    The saddle bars are cut, the cement is raked out and the panel comes out in one piece if it can.

  3. 03

    Dismantling

    The old lead is cut away and every piece of glass is numbered against the rubbing before it is lifted.

  4. 04

    Releading

    New came is milled to the profile of the old, and the panel is built back up on the rubbing.

  5. 05

    Cementing

    A linseed cement is brushed under both flanges. That is what makes a window watertight, not the solder.

01

What we mend

Cracked glass is edge bonded or leaded around, and stays in the panel. A broken piece of Victorian glass is not replaceable and we do not pretend otherwise. Paint loss is left alone: it is the history of the window and repainting it is a forgery.

02

What we replace

Lead, cement, ties and bars, all of which are consumables and none of which are original in any window this old. Where a piece is genuinely missing we make new glass, match it as closely as we can, and record on the drawing that it is ours.

The figures

What a panel actually involves.

125 yrsLife of a leadingThen it goes brittle and bows
9 weeksA single panelSix of them on the bench
£2,400Where a panel startsOne square metre, releaded, refitted
0Original glass discardedNumbered, kept, put back
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Send a photograph from inside.

Taken from inside on a bright day, with something in shot for scale. If the panel is bowing we can usually tell from that alone how long it has left.