Pagham church windows restored

The six works of art were in place for Sunday’s services at St Thomas a’Becket Church.

Unofficial church historian Sandy Sell, a member of the congregation for 40 years, said: “The windows are just so beautiful. It’s fantastic to see them back. It’s like old friends coming home. People will be amazed to see them.”

The £10,000 campaign to return the windows to their original condition has taken two years of fundraising from the church’s coffers and its Friends organisation. The six windows – each measuring 75in high by 17in wide – were installed after the first world war.

The set of three in the south transept were created by Edward Fellowes Prynne. He was the brother of George Fellowes Prynne, who designed St Wilfrid’s Church in Bognor Regis.

His son, Norman, went to Holyrood School in Victoria Drive along with John Mathews to whom the windows are dedicated.

He died in an explosion in 1917. His windows depict St Michael, Jesus and St George looking left to right. The north transept’s windows are dedicated to Carl Herbert Hartmann. His father came from Bremen in Germany in the 1870s and soon made his fortune as a merchant.

Carl went to Charterhouse School in Surrey and became an architect. He changed his name to Charles and joined the Artists’ Rifles to fight in the first world war.

He transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment and travelled with it to France on June 25, 1918. He was killed on July 2.

Looking left to right, his windows depict the Angel Gabriel, Mary and Jesus and Raphael. The windows, along with all the others, were removed from the church during the second world war. They were returned with a plastic sheet which had led to condensation over the decades. The panels in the windows had also become bowed.

They were removed last September for restoration by Robert Halloway, of Chapel Studios. He releaded them, replaced some cracked panes and cleaned the others.