Over the years we have purchased thousands of windows. Most windows came from the area immediately surrounding the City of Manchester. However, we also travelled west to Liverpool, Preston, and Blackpool. Our travels to the east took us to Sheffield, and in the southeast we made purchases in Nottingham and Leister. For a few of the early years (the late 1980’s), we made purchases in Glasgow, Scotland).
On one of our trips in 1992 we heard that some someone in Wales had a set of large windows. Obviously, we had to drive down and check out that ‘lead’. This was before the time of GPS and fortunately the road signs included English translation of all the Welsh names. We arrived at a farmstead that was the operation centre for a “house removal” company (it was a very large metal barn). They had a collection of very large windows. The windows had all been removed from large rural homes in the Welsh countryside. Some of the biggest windows were 6’ wide and 22’ tall. We struck a deal with the owner and had them shipped to our container packing site in Burnley.
We stored these windows for many years and have over the last few years worked at dismantling them into more manageable sizes (we have never had customers wanting such large windows). Recently, we pulled out two of these windows and decided to down-size them into more manageable elements.
These pictures show the initial steps in the journey of modifying two of these Welsh windows.
The window is on its side, with the top of the window at the left end. The upper part of the window has a bow and ribbon design. At the two sides of the upper part are smaller windows that are hinged at the top to allow the bottoms to swing open for fresh air. The centre panel is clear plate glass and the centre bottom panel is opaque glass.
The window still under the shed, with 25 years of dust. The centre panel of this window was changed to include 4 panels of glass that could pivot open and allow for more fresh air.
We are installing bracing on the window so we can separate the upper and lower part of the window.
The lower part has been separated in is waiting for the side panels to be removed. This step will require a patient approach with hammer and chisel.
We are prepping the window to remove it from under the side of the shed. The person who will eventually cutting apart the upper and lower sections is already wearing his safety glasses and a special dust filter mask.
The window is out on the driveway and we are installing temporary bracing so that the window can stand on its own when it is being cut into two sections.
The upper part of one of the large windows. This window will be kept in its original frame and repairs will be done in the summer.
One of the side pieces from the lower part of the window. The upper and lower half have been removed from the original frame, joined and a zinc border has been installed.
As you can tell these picture just show the start of the next journey for these windows. Restoration work will be done to the upper sections. The lower parts to the window are being chiselled out of the wooden frame, restored and then put into a new frame. We hope to have these windows up for sale later this year.