When the Trust took over responsibility for the site in 1998, the window was in a sorry state with nearly all of the tracery missing.
But it had not been thrown away. With admirable foresight the Parish Council had kept key pieces of the tracery stored for thirty years in the village hall, along with other pieces of the original masonry, including one of the belfry pinnacles. This unexpected discovery of apparently lost primary fabric made the restoration and preservation project much more feasible.
Another breakthrough came from archive photographs donated by the local community of the façade intact. By remastering them digitally into true elevations we could identify where these newly re-discovered pieces had come from, and so produce full-sized templates to enable the missing parts to be re-made.
The Georgian masons that had built this monument worked to fine tolerances with minimal beds of only 2 – 3mm of lime putty. The masons that were contracted for the restoration work had to be even more skilled as they were not working in horizontal layers from the ground upwards but vertically, lifting and sliding heavy tracery stones into position sideways, but with the same minimal mortar beds.
Although the window restoration was performed to an excellent standard, unfortunately the work doesn’t end there. Similar work is required across many parts of the facade and the site as a whole, if we are to preserve this historic monument. Our next round of fund-raising will be critical to the future of the St. Andrew’s site as a whole.