Church unveils its new window (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Church unveils its new window

12:00am Wednesday 1st October 2008 in News By Lewis Cowen

The congregation at St Andrew’s Church in Devizes are celebrating the completion of repairs to the huge stained glass window blown in 18 months ago in strong winds.

No-one was injured when the 25ft high window collapsed on January 18, 2007, but tonnes of glass and masonry showered the pavement and road outside.

The church was back in use very quickly once the debris had been cleared away and has continued in use after the window was boarded up. The boards were taken down last week.

The £50,000 project to replace the window has involved the efforts of expert conservators. Masons replaced the stonework around the window in May but the stained glass has taken much longer.

On September 21 the church was packed as the Rev Chris Cory led harvest celebrations and gave thanks for the beautiful window.

Mr Cory said: “We gave thanks to God for his many blessings, and in particular that when the window collapsed no- one was injured.”

It was a close thing, though. Chris Hayes and Helen Pond, administrators at Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, were walking past at the time.

Mrs Hayes said at the time: “I felt something hit my leg. It was the masonry from the front of the church hitting the pavement and then hitting my leg. I looked up and could see out of the corner of my eye that it was coming down. We just ran.”

The church is inviting people to sponsor the individual stained glass panels.

But now the church is about to embark on a huge £750,000 project to revamp the interior.

Mr Cory said: “The Star project will completely update the church premises, opening up the worship area, restoring the original roof space and the gallery. It will make everywhere more user friendly for community use and equip us to serve the community into the next decade.”