Benedict Biscop Day
Added 25/01/2012 Benedict Biscop Day
Students tudents took part in Sunderland’s celebration of patron saint, Benedict Biscop in January. He is widely recognised as being the person who brought the first stained glass craftspeople to the UK to settle on the banks of the River Wear back in the 7th Century. He is also remembered for his encouragement of a young Wearside lad, the now ‘Venerable’ Bede, who went on to become a literary giant , an innovative writer in his day, seen as “second only to Shakespeare” by some.
The design and production of glass has maintained its deep connection within our local culture and the last large glass factory remained open until 2007. With that in mind, a group of Year 9 students went along to the National Glass Centre to discover first hand, just how stained glass is made.
Students attended a workshop to enable each person to make a miniature window, with a cross in the middle. Simple though the design may appear, it did require a wide range of skills:
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working with a layout on a wooden board
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measuring, scoring and cutting the glass with different tools
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learning to ‘nibble’ into the glass with pliers for finite cutting
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stretching the soft lead so that it can be used in the design
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hammering horse shoe nails alongside design to keep pieces of glass in place
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using a wire brush and tallow to prepare the joints
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soldering joints to secure
Goggles were worn at all times!
The results are quite stunning. Each student has a slightly different take on the design as the photographs show.
“It’s been really good to see how it is done” said Thomas Howe. “The methods we used are not that different from the early glass makers – although we have more tools for cutting today
