HISTORIC stained-glass windows have a new home courtesy of the work of a Flintshire man and local business.
After a church in Gwynedd closed, the stained-glass windows were without a home and risked being lost.
Manufactured by Jonah Jones (1919–2004), a very famous and well-respected Welsh artist, in the mid-1960’s, they are in a style known as dalle de verre, which just means ‘slabs of glass’ in French.
They were originally made for the church of The Resurrection of Our Saviour at Morfa Nefyn in Gwynedd which was built as a ‘holiday-season church’.
Over the years the church was used less and less and the decision was made to close it four years ago. But Bishop Peter of Wrexham wanted to preserve the 12 windows because of their Welsh heritage - and St David’s Church in Mold was the only church in the diocese that could accommodate their size.
Mike Bunting, who is a parishioner of St David’s and also a retired Chartered Engineer with many years’ experience in heavy engineering, was invited to be involved as the project manager.
The windows have been framed in stainless-steel channels with stainless-steel supports constructed by a Deeside company, Dee Tech Services Ltd, which also installed them in the church.
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St David’s could only accommodate eight in the existing window recesses and so four were adapted with 12V LED light sheets and supported on the walls.
Rock-climbing anchors were used to lift the window frames into place using chain-blocks, and an electric scissor lift was used to gain access to secure the frame supports to the church walls.
In their original location in Morfa Nefyn, the windows had suffered from exposure to the elements and also some vandalism and so they were all refurbished at the Architectural Glass Centre, which is part of the Swansea College of Art, UWTSD (University of Wales Trinity St David’s). The dalles are embedded in an epoxy resin with Welsh slate chippings on the outer surfaces.
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The work started in January 2020, but was disrupted due to the Covid pandemic. The work to install them finished last month, and the windows are now on display for people to view.
Mike Bunting said: “Other than being born in Washington, Co Durham, a few miles from Jonah's birthplace, I also spent several years working in Israel.
"I can therefore sense the colours of the rocks, houses and water of the Holy Land in the two windows either side of the altar – even to the palm trees gently swaying in the breeze. I see a stylised Star of Bethlehem on the left window with perhaps the Rose of Sharon on the right. I have been told by Jonah’s younger son Peter that Jonah was perhaps looking to depict tongues of fire descending from heaven on the remaining windows.”
St David’s already has some dalles de verre from Dom Charles Norris of Buckfast Abbey, which can be seen on each side wall of the church. There is no other building that houses these two artists’ stained-glass windows together.
Mike added: "St David’s Church is therefore unique and these new windows will enhance the architecture of the church."
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