First and last - York Minster's Great East Window (updated)

York Minster's Great East Window is the size of a tennis court - the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the country in fact, and over the past few years, painstaking and meticulous renovation has meant the removal of every one of the 311 panels, before carefully restoring them and replacing them in the cathedral.

I documented both ends of the process as the first panel (fittingly, depicting God), and right at the top of the window, was carefully replaced in June 2015:

The first panel is prepared:

...and carefully fitted:

Back in place at the top of the window:

And after years of hard work, the final pane has now been replaced in the centre of the window:

I was also asked to document a special service to rededicate the window

Along the way I've documented royal visits to the glaziers, photographed the stonemasons and glaziers at work, and got some amazing views of the Minster, inside and out courtesy of the amazing amount of scaffolding that was required to complete the task.

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The restoration (and my pictures) made the news both locally and nationally, helping York Minster to raise awareness and funds.

Work goes on throughout the Minster though, and as one restoration project finishes, another begins. Find out more (and see many more of my photographs) by visiting www.yorkminster.org

I documented the installation of a completely different sort of glazing recently - no less impressive, and just as high - read about that here.