Repaired storm damage - St Mary's Episcopal Church, Aberdeen.
St Mary's Episcopal Church was founded in 1863 and consecrated in 1890 (as a result of debts incurred during construction). In April 1943 the chancel was destroyed by a German bomb (one of three in Scotland) and reopened almost 10 years later. It's thought the original stained glass windows were destroyed in the blast, and the entire church reglazed in a simple scheme using machine rolled, unpainted glass throughout.
In January 2022, the northeast of Scotland was hit by a series of storms, and the central part of Window NV was badly damaged. Morning Glass were asked by architect David Chouman to carry out repairs to the window while scheduled exterior works were underway.
The window had a single vertical division, and the upper right portion had blown into the church and shattered. The left portion was slightly damaged, but we were able to retain most of the glass. A template was made of the undamaged portion, and a new panel made using reproduction Wissmach glass.
Re installation of the E panel was made slightly awkward by the shape of the stonework, which was slightly asymmetric. The major and minor axes of the aperture were approximately 40mm different in size, and a slipped block in the stonework meant the right hand panel had to be resized to fit. To panels were inserted into the stone check horizontally and rotated into place one at at time, then tied together with copper wires wrapped around the retained ironwork. Final pointing was carried out by Graeme Cheyne Building Contractors Ltd.
