Stonyhurst College, Lancashire

Stonyhurst College, Lancashire

Restoration to the Paul Woodruff stained glass windows, and others, in the Sodality Chapel
2006/7
Conservation architect - Cassidy +Ashton Architects

Stonyhurst Hall was built in 1592 and became a Christian college in 1794. This English Heritage Grade 1 listed building is now one of the premier Catholic Independent Boarding and Day Schools in the country and houses historic collections of Christian sacred objects and art. Over the centuries the building has been extended on a grand scale and includes many examples of particularly fine stained glass.

A project to completely restore the Sodality Chapel started in 2004 with the glazing undergoing conservation in the final phases. A number of windows in the Chapel were designed and painted in the 1920's by the artist Paul Woodruff, a former pupil of the college. Beautifully painted in the Arts and Crafts style on the finest handmade glass these windows were in need of complete re-leading and had sustained breakages and some losses.

The windows were carefully documented and digitally photographed before dismantling. The painstaking matching of glass, pigment and stain, as well as recreating Woodruff's distinctive painting style, was vital to the restoration of these windows.