News

News of 2 events this month, one rather sad, but the other quite cheering (and one which would have been appreciated by Mrs Sporton):

Edith Evelyn Sporton (1911 - 2012)

Edith Evelyn Sporton who died recently, just 3 months short of her 101st birthday, was a "Friend" for many years. Evelyn and her late husband Henry, had worshipped at and contributed to life at Chesterfield Parish Church for 70 years. Henry sang in the choir and was adept at both servicing and playing the organ. Evelyn was a member of the Mothers' Union and devoted many hours cleaning and polishing the church furniture, all with great pride. They were a delightful couple, encouraging and offering loving support to many young choir boys in their early church lives. Evelyn was always modest, appreciative and friendly with a host of memories and anecdotes from her long life at the "Spire".

She will be missed by her family and friends.

May she rest in peace.

East Window

As reported on the Projects page, the Friends agreed to pay for cleaning of the East (Resurrection) Window as part of their celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Friends.  This work is now complete, and the accompanying photos (reproduced by permission of Ken Davis, the photographer) give some idea of the clarity and vividness of the colours in the restored window.

Please click on the photos to see a larger version.

East Window after cleaning

Perhaps surprisingly, the cleaning was only found to be necessary on the inside, rather than the exposed outside, of the window.  The dirt and grime resulting from the effects of the fire in 1961, together with the smoke from the many candles burnt on the high and central altars over the years proved to be much more damaging than the fumes from traffic on St Mary’s Gate. 

The work was carried out by Mick Stokes, who was responsible for the refurbishment of the South Transept window in 2011.

Other than being very dirty, there was little wrong with the window, only requiring very minor repairs to the leadwork on one or two panes.

The finished work reveals the Resurrection window in all its original splendour.

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