Join the events at a Sunderland church which is celebrating a newly restored stained glass window
‘Skilfully restored to its full glory’
A Sunderland church is planning to celebrate its stained glass windows - including one which has been splendidly restored after vandalism.
Stockton Road United Reformed Church, at the corner of Belvedere Road, is welcoming people to its series of events which begin in the week of September 6.
It is being held to mark the restoration of the Light of the World window which was designed by Wailes and Strang of Newcastle and shows the artist Holman Hunt’s iconic image of Christ knocking at an overgrown closed door.
The window is in memory of Mary Ann Duncan who was the wife of a newspaper editor, and who died in 1900.
After it was hit by vandalism, the lower half of the window was boarded up and the loss of the complete image was felt by the congregation, said a spokesperson who added: “It has now been skilfully restored to its full glory by Iona Art Glass of Amble, thanks to a grant from the Freemasons Grand Lodge of Durham.
“The window will be rededicated by the Church’s minister, the Rev Jane Rowell, at a special service at 10.45am on Sunday, September 6.
“At 7pm on Thursday, September 10, the Rev Chris Howson, an expert on North East stained glass, will give a talk in the Church about the stained glass artists who created the windows in the building.
“After the talk, and on Saturday, September 12, when the Church will be open from 2- 4pm as part of the Heritage Open Days event, there will be the opportunity for visitors to use the new guides to the stained glass. They give details of the biblical subjects of the windows and the people they commemorate.
“These include members of leading Sunderland industrialist families, such as Bartrams the shipbuilders, and also the minister when the Church was built in 1890 - and his wife who wrote 600 letters appealing for help to pay off the debt on the building.”
Sunderland was the home of the firm of Hartley Wood who made stained glass for churches and cathedrals throughout Britain for over a century from 1892. Several of the windows in the Church were made with Hartley Wood glass.