Monday, 26th January 2026 brought forth the scaffolders – and the start of the next stage of a new east window for St Denis’ church, East Hatley.

The scaffolding, internal and external, enabled contractors Lodge & Sons to remove (for the second time) the protective boards, put there 20 years ago when the building was saved following over 40 years of neglect.

As our composite of photographs (click on it to enlarge the picture), taken in 2006, August 2024 and April 2026 show, the tracery hidden for 18 years by security boards was in poor condition, with pieces of wood acting as braces to hold some of it together has been repaired.

Lodge was appointed by the Friends of Friendless Churches, owners of St Denis’ (the building, not the churchyard*) to repair the window under the guidance of Stephanie Norris, the FoFC’s architect on this project – we are in good hands, for she has overseen all the repairs to the church since the FoFC became its owners in 2016, as recalled in ‘The FoFC acquires St Denis’.

In early February 2026 Lodges’ stonemasons, Stuart Thompson and Ryan Johnson, his apprentice, were on site to assess and ‘measure up’ the tracery – which highlighted an issue all stonemasons dread: the tracery did not line up, there being 25 mm vertical spread across the window caused by over 40 years of neglect between 1959 when the church was closed and 2006 when the major restoration work was completed; as there was insufficient budget at the time to repair the window (indeed, any of the windows or the floor inside), wooden chocks were inserted in the tracery as supports (held with a metal tie to the outer frame) and the whole covered in black plywood security boarding.

Stone, unlike metal, wood or glass, cannot be bent to fit a shape, so the out of kilter masonry created quite a headache for Stuart who resolved it by altering the curves in the tracery sufficiently to allow the cut lines for the glass to line up correctly; it’s unlikely from the ground one can see the differences.

The new stonework, Stoke Ground Base Bed Bath Stone, a hard wearing, light buff/grey and frost resistant limestone, very similar to the stone used by William Butterfield when he restored the church in 1874, was produced off-site. The repairs to the tracery were completed in mid-March and the black plywood security boards replaced by transparent Perspex sheets.

Having finished the stonework, Aidan McRae Thomson, the stained glass artist commissioned by the FoFC, templated the tracery, allowing him to begin working on a full size drawing (or ‘cartoon’) of each section – his key stage prior to selecting the appropriate coloured glasses and cutting them to shape, a process he succinctly describes in his book Stained Glass.

And next? In spring 2027, Aidan will install the new window – and exciting time for us all to look forward to.

Traditional design

The old east window was by Alexander Gibbs, one of the foremost stained glass designers and manufacturers of the late 19th century – and friend of William Butterfield the architect who restored St Denis’ in 1874.

Butterfield was as eminent as Gibbs – it is extraordinary they would want to have bothered with such an out-of-the-way place as East Hatley must have been then. Perhaps any commission was welcome!

Aidan based his design for the new window on the FoFC’s brief – which incorporated comments from the survey we carried out during the Heritage Open Day festival in September 2022 asking for the window to be ‘Victorian-type bright colours like the old window’; he writes…

I have done my best to pay homage to the style of Butterfield and Gibbs, in form, colouring and layout without strictly copying any particular work.

I have as requested depicted the legend of St Denis, though his story is a nebulous one and most accounts simply mention his conversion of Christians and becoming bishop of Paris, and then his martyrdom with two followers under the Emperor Decius and the legend of him carrying his head away after execution to the spot now occupied by the St Denis basilica.

I have thus depicted these episodes in the lower half, on the left his role in drawing converts as bishop, in the centre about to be executed with his two followers (the emperor gives his order to the left, the executioner wields his sword to the right), and in the last panel on the right the famous image of the Saint carrying his head to the site of the present St Denis’ Cathedral.

Above I have depicted Christ surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists, a composition used in many Gibbs / Butterfield windows in prominent positions, and also linking to the similar focus that was in the original window.

In the traceries two angels hold scrolls, while in the smallest above an image of St Denis’s church, East Hatley, cradled by two hands to signify the rescue of the church following its redundancy.

Want to know more? Start here!

Owning a listed building brings with it considerable responsibility – the first and foremost being to look after it… indeed, as St Denis’ is Grade II* (the second highest grading) South Cambs District Council, as owners of the building at the time, was compelled to restore it in the early 2000s, as we recount in St Denis’ is to be saved.

Everything the FoFC has done to the church since it took ownership in late 2016 has been approved by SCDC’s conservation officer, who works within the council’s planning department (now under the auspices of Greater Cambridge Shared Planning – ‘a strategic partnership between Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council’).

Here are links to SCDC’s planning pages and other useful key detail regarding St Denis’ new east window:

• Planning application documents for 25/01044/LBC.
• Sketch of tracery repairs.
• Description of the work to be done.

* While the church of St Denis, East Hatley is no longer in use for worship, the churchyard remains consecrated ground, open for burials.

It was in late 2013 when the Trustees of the FoFC first came to look at St Denis’ with a view to adding it to their portfolio of (at the time) nearly 50 churches (it’s now over 60).

Thanks to them (and grants from various public bodies) it is opened every day from around 8.30 am to dusk to look round, to remember or for quiet contemplation.

• Friends of Friendless Churches – website.
• St Denis’ East Hatley – 800 years old: redundant but not abandoned.

_{Post written / created by Peter Mann (without the use of AI), 26th January 2026; updated 28th January and again on 17th April 2026.}