Lenten Reflections

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Restoration of the Altars

We are delighted to have Vanessa Webb back with us to restore the three altars in the church. Vanessa designed and stencil-painted (with a previous colleague) the back drop to the main altar back in the late 80’s at the request of Fr Maher SJ. She will now be restoring it to its former glory following damage by damp, using the same design of celestial blue and gold bunches of grapes.

Vanessa, who is based in Bristol, has extensive experience of restoring antique paintwork and gilding. Among other projects, she has worked on the Manor House, Uphill Manor, at Weston-super-Mare, restoring stencilling from the 1860’s. This work has been done previously by Crace and Son, decorators to royalty for three generations.

She said: “I do not like to paint over antique painting that is good. I like to work with the old decoration, enhancing its beauty and picking out significant features, reinstating only what is damaged.”

She has highlighted all the gold paintwork in our Italianate main back altar, and redefined the edges and the shape where the stonework was chipped. She has been right up to the top of the dome, even restoring the gold within the cupola. The ‘piece de resistance’ is the pelican over the tabernacle, which she rightly regards as the main feature of the altar. This has been completely re-gilded so it reflects the light.
She has also redone the gold at the base of the pillars. Moving on to the Lady Chapel, she will once again restore the paintwork and highlight the gold, as well as clean the statue itself. She has repainted the gold panels at the base of the altar originally done by Kevin Boyle , and restore the blue edging. Finally, she will re-gild and paint the Sacred Heart altar and clean up the statue.


She said: “St Mary’s is my favourite Bristol church and has been since I worked here in the 1980’s. Someone came up to me then and said ‘Thank you for making our church the prettiest in Bristol’ and I really appreciated that remark. It is really my pleasure to work here: I love the church and I love the work.” She hopes to finish in the early part of 2010. For further details of Vanessa Webb’s work, see her website: www.stunningfx.co.uk (Marion Morgan)

Three Months in Exile

As the main Church building closed for the redecoration, we moved to the Hall for all Masses. We soon got used to going in by the side door and through the Crypt corridor, finding the Hall looking remarkably like a church. The altar had been put on the platform, with the St Damiano crucifix above it; a tabernacle was in the corner one side and the hymn board on the other. There was even the small font there.


The musicians took their place at the back, with an electronic keyboard which played either as an organ or a piano, according to the preference of the organist.

There were pluses and minuses to this arrangement. On the positive side, there was a good feeling of warmth and companionship as we pushed together on the chairs to make room for everyone. On the more negative side, we missed the statues and the candles (too much of a fire hazard in the squash) and there was a certain confusion getting everyone seated, especially as the back chairs always seemed to fill up first! Embarrassed members of the congregation arriving half way through the Mass were escorted to seats right at the front. Kneeling down was out of the question.

The organist could not see the celebrant when the congregation were standing, and sometimes had to guess when to come in.

On top of all this, we were still going through the swine flu restrictions: no chalice and just a nod at the Sign of Peace.

All in all, although we were grateful to have had such a good place in which to worship as a temporary measure, it felt like a real return from exile when we at last returned to the main Church on the second Sunday of Advent. Phew!

(Marion Morgan)