Southern Lights

03/05/2024

Moira and Richard meeting Prince Edward at the grand reopening ceremony at Newport Minster and chatting with him about the restoration of the stained glass window.

26/04/2024

Last week we reglazed a stained glass window we restored into Newport Minster as part of the major refurbishment.
The bottom half of the stained glass window had been smashed out.
We had to remove the window to our studio and strip out the entire bottom half saving as much of the original glass as we could.
We then had to redraw the section working from a small photo showing little detail.
We painted and fired fifty new pieces of glass to match the original, working from the small fragments that had been collected.
The damaged section was then rebuilt using the new painted and fired pieces and reglazed into Newport Minster ready for the reopening ceremony on May 1st.

02/01/2023

Back during the summer despite some strong competition we at Southern Lights along with Wight Stonemasonry were proud to win the top Conservation Award from the Isle of Wight Society for a project that we completed involving the removal, conservation and restoration of the Main East Stained glass windows at the Church of St Michael the Archangel, Shalfleet, IOW.
It was quite a project!

19/10/2021

Southern Lights is now temporarily closed while Richard recovers from an operation. We hope to re-open, all going well, Monday 22nd November 2021. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

02/10/2020

A pair of Victorian design door panels and matching top light designed, made and fitted by Southern Lights for another lovely client a few months ago.
We used English muffle glass for the background in soft shades with sparkle glass and bevelled glass in between and a lovely central roundel encased in the middle of the propeller design.
The client was very pleased.

29/08/2019

An on going window restoration programme at St Michael the Archangel, Shalfleet, Isle of Wight, one of the projects we are working on with Wight Stonemasonry.
North and South Windows of the Chancel completed and starting the restoration of the large East stained glass windows in October.
It is thanks to The Allchurches Trust that restoration projects like these are possible.

04/04/2019

Just completed the restoration of the vandalised 1879 Rev Philip Hewett stained glass window at the Church of the Holy Cross, Binstead, Isle of Wight.

20/01/2019

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2220431161344118&id=176717645715490

One of our projects from last year in the County Press. 😃

IT HAS been boarded up for two years — but the rose window at St James' Church in East Cowes has now been restored to its former glory.

16/12/2018

Some of you may have heard that St Michael and All Angel's Church built in 1857 in Swanmore, Ryde is due to close its doors on the 24th of December.
The church was built in the French medieval style with a large imposing tower that dominates the landscape. If you are interested in Victorian Church Architecture it is well worth a visit to view the interior with it's high vaulted ceilings and polychrome brickwork which was at the height of fashion when the church was built. The Lady Chapel has a beautiful, fine painted ceiling depicting the nine orders of the Angel that was completed by Arthur Moore. There are also some beautiful Stained Glass Windows and statues in the various niches which are among many other fine features. You need to see it to appreciate it.
We very much hope that this building can be saved for future generations to enjoy!

14/12/2018

Two large Leaded Lights that were in a very poor and leaking state at St James Church, East Cowes.
We carefully removed them to our studio, stripped them down, completely redesigned the heads so they now fit the shape of the masonry and redesigned the bottom of them by adding an extra red border to complement the original design and they are now long enough to sit in the bottom rebate. We completely rebuilt them with all new lead cames and reglazed the restored Leaded Lights back into the repaired masonry with lime mortar and new stainless steel saddle bars.
The Leaded Lights are now as good as new and will last at least a hundred years!
The work was completed in conjunction with Wight Stonemasonry who did an excellent job with the stone conservation as usual.
Another happy customer. 😀