AMILTON D E S I G N G L A S S The artwork of Jeffrey Hamilton

Re-installation of Restored Windows, Tumut NSW

XX Mon. YYYY

Mid-March found me and my site team in the large country town of Tumut, in the high country, Southern NSW, re-installing two 150 yr old windows which we had removed last October. They were in a rather dilapidated state, with large gaps appearing between the lead came and the glass, and many repairs carried out over the years.

Fortunately Tumut Catholic Church has its own aluminium scaffold, so that was set up ready for us, and the external steel scaffold was erected by a local contractor. First job was to remove the plywood covers we had installed previously for weather proofing.

In some ways timber frames are even more tricky than masonry installs. For the top foil and the arches we used a very old but simple and effective method to bend the timber beads, making small half-cuts to the timber and filling these afterward with "builders' bog", later sanded off and painted.

At the bottom of the window set were a pair of ventilating steel sashes: these present their own particular issues. In this case we used traditional sash clips to hold the leadlight panels in place. In the photo above you will see small holes in the side of the steel frame to accommodate these clips. The rebates are then puttied up, burying the clips and keeping them safe from corrosion.

As is often the case with refurbishment of old stained glass windows, there were quite a few pieces that had been repaired previously. With such an important piece of glass as the Sacred heart of Jesus I deferred to the Parish committee for a decision on whether to replace or no, given that there was a break right across the top of the heart. I knew that I could make a fair facsimile of the original and although it took two attempts, that was what was done in the end.