Browse Sections

• Food and drink
• Magazine 

And let there be light ...

Angela Kelly
6/ 8/2008

SHEDDING light on Manchester’s Victoria Baths was a challenge for one of the specialist companies involved in the huge restoration project.

The first phase of the work to return the Edwardian building with its pool, Turkish baths and fittings from a long-gone era is due to finish in the next few months. But for a small company based in a former village Co-op building in Blackrod, near Bolton, it has been a lengthy adventure.

Design Lights (Stained Glass) Ltd was brought in seven years ago to assess the state of the Victoria Park building’s many stained glass windows.

The baths finally closed in 1993 and supporters had long been campaigning to save the building. It was the BBC’s programme Restoration that came to its rescue when the venue’s plight was highlighted.

In September 2003, the venue captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people across the UK when it was named the series’ winner – with a £3 million Heritage Lottery Fund, plus £500,000 more raised by the BBC itself, as the prize.

The state of the Hathersage Road building, inside and out, meant that many individual craftsmen and companies were needed for the specialist work. Design Lights’ Linda Walton and Denis Eckersley had worked with the project’s architects before, and have an established reputation as experts in their field.

Their work can be seen around the country, particularly in churches and cathedrals – from 3D work on the Lantern Tower at Blackburn Cathedral to the large abstract design specially created for a window at Manchester Cathedral.

Linda had trained at art school locally before joining a stained glass company and learning the craft. A European grant enabled her to open her own studio in Wigan until a chance meeting with Denis Eckersley – trained as a leader and glass painter in a Bolton firm and with his own studio – prompted the duo to set up premises together in Blackrod.

Both are stained glass artists in their own right but, as Linda explained, "you have to become so much more – researcher, academic, historian, and that’s before the paperwork for every window."

Accredited by the Institute of Conservation (ICON), their work is much sought after by museums and galleries, among others.

Although well used to restoration work, Victoria Baths’ windows posed varying problems – from broken sections to detail worn away by time and conditions to correction work. Their  studio’s team of seven have been kept busy with the historic panels, not least the building’s centrepiece, the Angel of Light.

This, like the other windows, was made in panels and first had to be carefully removed and transported to the firm’s studios. Here, it was reassembled and a rubbing taken using brown paper and a graphite stick.

"This shows up where the leading and the copper ties are which keep it in place," explains Denis.

Then the window was stripped down and assembled on board to allow the broken areas to be matched up. In spite of the huge stock of glass at the studio, some had to be specially ordered and this meant sending off to Birmingham firm English Antique Glass.

The panels are then reassembled and releaded over the rubbing, each one held in place with horseshoe nails to allow the placing of the lead cames. In the baths’ colourful windows depicting various sportsmen, detail – like faces – had faded and needed repainting.

Now the Angel of Light is back in its prominent place, casting a colourful glow over the ongoing work there, and the sports windows are also on view.

"Even though we are a skilled company, stained glass art is dying," says Linda. "There are so many health and safety rules now applying. We have to have blood tests every six months to check lead levels, for instance.

"It is not something that young people want to train in these days, either, as it is very hands-on. But we have thoroughly enjoyed being involved with Victoria Baths – it’s very satisfying to see the windows back to their former glory."

For more details about the Victoria Baths restoration ring 0161 224 2020 or visit www.victoriabaths.org.uk.