Bill's Lecture - Dudley Wood |
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Introduction
Bill's Lecture
Additional Material |
Now we're coming down to Wellington Road Church, with a very tall church, St Luke's, and it was demolished, about 5 or 6 years ago. Of course, like all churches, the congregation falling. But the Reverend Ron Crisp, who's the vicar of Dudley Wood Church in Cradley Heath, he came to me, he said, come up to Wellington Road Church because I want to show you something up there. He'd got his warden in, he said "Look Bill", he said, "when I was a curate here", he said, "I admired that window very much." He said "And they told me the church was going to be pulled down and if I wanted it for my church, they'd give it me". It was a Victorian window about, put in for the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, beautifully painted by the old Victorian Masters of the craft. Well, I mean, that was about 40 foot up, I looked on it as a challenge if I remember. I said, look if you put me a scaffolding up and I'll whip the window out and we'll see what can be done.
Scaffolding up, and single handed I removed that window and that it was about 13 foot in height. And that rose window in the top, it took some getting out but I managed it alright. And the trouble was that his church there was a pilot light window at the back and this three lights was going to have to be made into five lights.
And this window was about 10 to 12 inches wider than his windows in his
church the church in Dudley Wood and they were going on the west end there
and there are 5 lights there. Well, can you imagine this, I had to cut the
centre pieces down and I had to make out of all the bits we got left over,
I made some windows for the sides, and that is the finished effect.
And the Bishop of
Worcester came and did a dedicatory, well he spoke a sermon as well, and
he came and he was very, very pleased with the effect
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