the stained glass window
Half way up the main staircase in the middle of the house on the mezzanine landing is a big stained glass window. It must be 8 foot tall and 4 foot wide. It is split into six main panes and each main panes has 14 small coloured panes around the outside.
When we arrived at Lanoy we didn't know what colour it was. It was so dirty, covered in thick black mould years of dirt and huge cobwebs. We cleaned it off and revealed lovely bright red glass and Victorian etched panes. Two of the larger center panes were odd to the rest as they had been replaced by bubbly effect glass. I later found out that Joan who lived here in the 1940s was playing tennis up against the back of the house and the ball went through the window. Not just once but on 2 separate occasions. I bet she was in trouble ! Twice !!
So we lovingly cleaned it and tried to bring it back to glory again. Some of the red glass was chipped and has small cracks and holes in it. The big wooden frame is in good condition on the inside but on the exterior, like most of the woodwork here it it completely rotten through and i do wonder how it actually manages to stay in place without falling out. One big storm or lashings of rain from the west could easily destroy it.
I sent his nibs up a ladder two summers ago to attempt to 'patch up' the rotten wooden frame and sill. He spent an afternoon scraping out wood that resembled a digestive biscuit and diligently filling the holes and trying to make good the frame to last a few years longer. After using a tub of filler some wood hardener stuff and sanding it down and painting it you could no longer poke your finger through the worm eaten rotten frame. Instead it resembled a bad 'filler job' on the wing of an old ford escort. But it did the job. It didn't let the rain in and the glass wasn't likely to fall out imminently.
It would be lovely to keep the window but its in such a bad state we have decided to have it removed and replaced. So we approached a local window company to make one for us and have just instructed a stained glass artist to commission a design to be integrated into the new window. Its going to be more colourful and rather than just red and plain with some etched panels we have chosen a typical Victorian design copied from a Victorian mansion. I have hand picked the colours to be used and it will contain some reds, golds, blues and greens. It's going to be gorgeous !!
We have had our survey and i am hoping it will be fitted before Christmas. I hope it will be in by then as it will look stunning lit up with our Christmas tree lights shining through.
When we arrived at Lanoy we didn't know what colour it was. It was so dirty, covered in thick black mould years of dirt and huge cobwebs. We cleaned it off and revealed lovely bright red glass and Victorian etched panes. Two of the larger center panes were odd to the rest as they had been replaced by bubbly effect glass. I later found out that Joan who lived here in the 1940s was playing tennis up against the back of the house and the ball went through the window. Not just once but on 2 separate occasions. I bet she was in trouble ! Twice !!
So we lovingly cleaned it and tried to bring it back to glory again. Some of the red glass was chipped and has small cracks and holes in it. The big wooden frame is in good condition on the inside but on the exterior, like most of the woodwork here it it completely rotten through and i do wonder how it actually manages to stay in place without falling out. One big storm or lashings of rain from the west could easily destroy it.
I sent his nibs up a ladder two summers ago to attempt to 'patch up' the rotten wooden frame and sill. He spent an afternoon scraping out wood that resembled a digestive biscuit and diligently filling the holes and trying to make good the frame to last a few years longer. After using a tub of filler some wood hardener stuff and sanding it down and painting it you could no longer poke your finger through the worm eaten rotten frame. Instead it resembled a bad 'filler job' on the wing of an old ford escort. But it did the job. It didn't let the rain in and the glass wasn't likely to fall out imminently.
It would be lovely to keep the window but its in such a bad state we have decided to have it removed and replaced. So we approached a local window company to make one for us and have just instructed a stained glass artist to commission a design to be integrated into the new window. Its going to be more colourful and rather than just red and plain with some etched panels we have chosen a typical Victorian design copied from a Victorian mansion. I have hand picked the colours to be used and it will contain some reds, golds, blues and greens. It's going to be gorgeous !!
We have had our survey and i am hoping it will be fitted before Christmas. I hope it will be in by then as it will look stunning lit up with our Christmas tree lights shining through.
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