John Rylands Library, Manchester
Pendle Stained Glass Ltd was chosen as the main contractor to undertake the extensive refurbishment
of the glass for John Rylands Library in Manchester City Centre. The library, inaugurated in 1899,
was designed by architect Basil Champneys and is one of the finest neo-Gothic buildings in Europe.
It was merged with Manchester University Library in 1972 and today houses special collections of rare books,
manuscripts and one of the world's richest archives on the cotton industry.
The project involved the complete dismantling, careful cleaning, re-leading and refitting of over 600 stained glass panels.
The panels were composed of spun glass roundels in a style commonly seen in medieval Germany and Northern Europe. The
project, a huge undertaking, involved approximately 3,000 square feet of releading with over 60,000 individual roundels.
Nine thousand roundels were especially blown and imported from germany (in six different shades) to replace originals that
had deteriorated beyond repair.
Organization on a large scale and painstaking attention to detail were the key to the successful completion of the project.
Image İEnglish Heritage
