REPAIRS costing £10,000 are underway to the best known of the Victorian stained-glass windows in Barnard Castle’s parish church.
The window at St Mary’s Church was manufactured by CE Kempe and installed in the south side of the chancel in 1885, replacing an earlier window of which traces still remain.
In 1994, the Kempe Society recorded that some of the glass was broken.
A detailed report last year by Jonathan and Ruth Cooke, of the Stained Glass Window Conservation company, identified that the window was also in poor structural condition.
Robert Stenlake, church treasurer, said: “The deterioration appears to be caused by the removal of external structural supports many years ago when external protective glazing was installed.”
The three main sections of the window have been temporarily removed to Mr Cooke’s workshop in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, for repair and conservation. The window depicts three scenes of the Passion – Christ before Pilate, Christ in Gethsemane and Christ washing the feet of the disciples.
Mr Stenlake added: “When the window is reinstalled sometime in the next few weeks, we should be able to see these scenes much more clearly and as they would have looked when the window was new. Dirt will have been removed from between the window and its external glazing and there will be new protective grilles on the outside.”
The church has been able to carry out the work thanks to its patron, Trinity College, in Cambridge, which has funded the job.
Meanwhile, the church has made an application a £350,000 Lottery bid for funding for vital repairs to the tower. The huge cracks running down the wall are believed to be caused by pressure exerted by the church tower that was built in Victorian times.
