The heart-stopping work of removing a 150-year-old stained glass masterpiece from one of Britain's greatest cathedrals

One of Salisbury Cathedral's most famous stained glass windows is being restored — and that means it must be removed in a painstaking process.

Glazier Kate Kersey prepares to remove the uppoer section of Angeli Ministrantes in the South Quire Aisle at Salisbury Cathedral.
Glazier Kate Kersey prepares to remove the uppoer section of Angeli Ministrantes in the South Quire Aisle at Salisbury Cathedral.
(Image credit: Finnbarr Webster)
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When, 145 years ago, Sir Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris’s stained-glass window was unveiled at Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, it was not received favourably and what should have been a commission for a series of windows was swiftly reduced to just the one. Angeli Ministrantes and Angeli Laudantes (Angels Ministering and Praising) is now considered a pre-Raphaelite treasure and, last week, experts began the heart-in-mouth task of chipping away at the cement and removing the copper ties holding it in place, before removing it, cracking leadwork and all, from the frame in 6ft by 4ft sections to be taken away for restoration.

‘Despite their solid appearance, stained-glass sections of this size can be fragile, and it is always a relief to get them into the workshop. They are also incredibly heavy (about 40kg per section),’ explains head glazier Sam Kelly.

Sam Kelly, head of glass conservation at Salisbury Cathedral, takes a look at Burne-Jones's large stained glass figures in the workshop.
(Image credit: Finnbarr Webster)

‘Exposure to the elements, especially condensation internally caused by ancient heaters in the cathedral (which have now been replaced) and water ingress have taken their toll. Painted details, especially on the faces and robes of the angels, have faded over time… and the colours and patterns have been dulled by layers of accumulated dirt.’

Mr Kelly and his team, from their on-site workshop, expect the job of cleaning the glass and adding painted and fired backing glass to replace lost detail based on Burne-Jones’s chalk drawings, as well as ensuring the original artwork is not altered, to take the best part of two years. Protective glazing and oak frames should shield the window against future deterioration.

The restoration of Burne-Jones’s ‘four colossal and sublime figures of Angels’ (for which he charged £80), as described in the 1878 Morris and Co account book, surrounded by Morris’s acanthus-leaf design, is expected to cost £120,000. About half that has been raised due to The Dulverton Trust and others and the cathedral is seeking donations via its website.

Easy does it... the Burne-Jones window on its way for restoration.Picture: Finnbarr Webster
(Image credit: Finnbarr Webster)
Annunciata Elwes
Annunciata Elwes

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.

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