Glorious glass: St Andrew’s Church, Heckington

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 421

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In 1946, 500 fragments of brightly coloured stained glass were removed from the window of St Andrew’s Church, Heckington, to make way for a modern replacement. This was not their first move – the fragments, which are mainly thought to represent the Lincolnshire church’s original 14th century glazing scheme, had previously been collated from numerous other windows within the building – but the years that followed could certainly be described as something of a journey for the medieval glass.

The fragments’ travels began in the early 1960s, when they were sent to G King & Son in Norwich, in the hope of restoration. As the Parish Council of the time lacked the required funding, however, the glass was then offered to Lincoln Cathedral as restoration materials for their choir aisle windows. When this plan also failed to progress, the pieces were sent on once again, this time to glass conservators Barley Studio in York, where they remained in storage for many decades – until, in 2015, the studio approached St Andrew’s about bringing the vibrant shards home.

Now, following ten years of planning and a year of enthusiastic fundraising to secure over £10,000, the glass has returned to Heckington after having been cleaned and edge-bonded using conservation-grade silicone adhesives by Barley Studio. Lions, human faces, foliage, and castles can all be spotted within the resulting three-panel jigsaw of glass, which was installed in late January and unveiled by the Bishop of Lincoln on 9 February – an appropriate way to mark the 700th anniversary of the church building, originally completed in 1325.

Text: Rebecca Preedy / Images: Barley Studio