Conservation & Restoration

At Langan Stained glass we usually conserve stained glass, though we may use the term restoration to help people better understand what we do. This means that we always seek to retain the original stained glass and preserve it using a number of conservation techniques, documentation and reversibility being key. Our policy is to use minimal intervention other than giving the class a thorough clean using non destructive methods and releading which is usually necessary if it has been deemed that the glass needs to be removed for repair.

Colette Langan received an extensive training in stained glass conservation with Chapel Studio in the UK and was there from the beginning of the establishment of the conservation department, led by Alfred Fisher. She later worked with Steven Clare in the development of isothermal glazing in the 1990’s. While there she worked on medieval glass from Westminster Abbey, Winchester Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral and many other landmark buildings in the UK. She also conserved windows by William Morris, Pugin, Kempe, Tiffany and Harry Clarke in her own studio here in Ireland.

18th Century

These were exquisitely painted French windows but when they arrived into the studio the glass was too fragile to photograph upright. It was decided to repair the glass without removing the leadwork

19th Century

Stained glass tracery

An example of the process, in the first image the glass has been removed from the building but not worked on. In the second the old lead has been stripped away and the glass cleaned. The final two images are of the glass reassembled ready to be reinstalled

Conservation training

Working and training in Chapel Studio under the tutelage of Alfred Fisher I got to work on stained glass from some of the finest historic buildings in the United Kingdom.

Rivenhall, Essex The breastfeeding Madonna. The stained glass in this church is arguable the oldest in Britain, even older than the famous glass 12th century from Canterbury Cathedral. Our team won a conservation award for the work we conducted on this scheme of windows.

This is a post conservation close up of a panel that came from Sutton Place in Surry built c.1525 where Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn.

The lines particularly visible in the bottom right quadrant of the shield are miniature copper foils which during the conservation process replaced heavy repair leads.