In 2023, The Divine Beauty Project restored the cathedral’s four stained-glass windows to their original beauty, ensuring they can be enjoyed for many more years to come. Before the conservation work, the windows displayed signs of dirt buildup, cracked glazing, and damaged stonework. Conservators found evidence of previous attempts to repair cracks, leads, and to touch up damaged areas. The project thoroughly cleaned and repaired the ironwork frames and addressed the long-term weather damage to the surrounding stonework. The works also involved installing new external grilles on all four windows for protection and to improve the view of the windows from the outside.
The restoration process took over 500 working days to complete. The project was made possible thanks to a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, as well as donations from various organisations and individuals. In addition to the physical conservation work, over 3400 visitors were able to take part in scaffolding tours. School children took part in special workshops, street art inspired by the windows was created, and public drop-in sessions with the conservation team brought the work to life for a new audience.
Some sections of the windows were in such poor condition, that twenty panels, mostly located at the top and bottom of each of the four windows, had to be removed. These panels were taken to the conservator’s workshop in Wells for restoration. Conservators used a solution of acetone and deionised water to clean the glass – effectively removing grease and soot without damaging the paint.
Some panels required new leading, which had been intricately shaped to create definition and details in the images, such as folds in cloaks. Malleable lead cames were shaped by hand and come in different sizes, depending on the glass thickness. Before dismantling, rubbings were taken of the panels to copy the design accurately. There are two main methods of taking rubbings – either using a crayon-like substance or ink. The crayon method provides a more detailed final rubbing, whereas ink can be more efficient over larger panels.
Conservators cut the lead cames to size with a chisel and aligned them with the outlines from the rubbings taken from the panels to recreate the windows in the workshop – ensuring the correct tension was achieved during this process, so that the windows could be returned to their original size, shape, and strength when the cames were soldered together. A putty was inserted into the small gaps between the lead caming and the glass to ensure the windows remained weatherproof.
Conservators also hand-touched some paintwork, which proved challenging when matching the paint colours to the windows’ original. Many of the colours had not faded over the years due to high quality craftsmanship in their original creation. The detailed features of the windows were painted on with ground glass, stabilised with oil and water and re-fired, bonding them into the structure of the glass, reducing the amount of colour fading over time.
