Chapel Windows Restored

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Over the summer, the Chapel windows underwent a major twelve-week refurbishment programme and are restored to their former glory.

The Keble Chapel stands out amongst Oxford chapels for its elaborate and colourful interior decoration. William Butterfield aimed to replicate the 14th Century style of stained-glass windows, characterised by simple images that contrast bold, coloured background decorations with clear, lightly shaded figures.

Over the last 150 years, the stained glass had begun to face some inevitable age-related issues. In particular, one lead net matrix on the south side had suffered rapid failure under thermal stress in the direct summer sun. Keble Chaplain Father Max remembers “watching with mounting concern as one of the panels slipped downwards bit by bit, pushing the window  below out at an increasingly terrifying angle over the quad.”

Following an assessment by Recclesia Stained Glass (a renowned specialist glass studio), a number of panels were removed for conservation at their studio, with the remainder being treated in situ. Access to the most damaged window was complicated by the placement of the organ, which made for extensive scaffolding requirements.

The south side panels were fully re-leaded, which involved carefully removing each individual piece of painted glass. The pieces were laid out on a rubbing of the original design, to track them throughout the restoration. After cleaning, the glass was then reassembled into a new, identical lead matrix.

For less-damaged areas of window, local re-leading retained some original metalwork. In others, where the window had buckled slightly but the lead net remained intact, the panels were carefully reshaped back to a flat plane using weighted cloth bags.

The extensive twelve-week restoration project was completed in September, ready for the start of the new academic year. Father Max says, “It was a huge relief to have everything safely in place in time for term beginning again – most of our undergraduates who were away over the summer didn’t even realise anything had happened!”