How many times have you been in the Bellingen Memorial Hall?
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If that’s an uncalculated number, then here’s hoping you took more notice than I have of the surrounds. And if you were observant, you would have noticed a piece of the Shire’s history peering down – a beautiful and stirring soldier reminding all of the sacrifices made by servicemen and women.
The stained glass window featured at the front of the Bellingen Memorial Hall is an original part of the building that was dedicated on April 25, 1929.
The building of the memorial hall was the result of collaboration between multiple community groups including Bellingen Shire Council, School of Arts and the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia (a precursor to today’s RSL).
The window, size approximately 1.6m x 1.2m features the image of a soldier which has been hand painted and kiln-fired into glass.
The soldier, wearing WWI uniform and field equipment and holding a Lee Enfield rifle with bayonet fixed, is standing in profile and has the words ‘Bellingen Memorial’ above and below.
This window is on the Register of War Memorials in NSW as The Soldier’s Window.
However, last year The Soldier’s Window was assessed by a stained glass expert and found to be in a critical condition.
In a grant submission to Bellingen Shire Council the Bellinger RSL sub-branch said “the original lead structure has reached the end of its useful life and is not able to support the glass within the design”.
“This is causing serious buckling of individual panes of glass. There are also at least ten cracked panes of glass.
“The craft work used in the construction of this stained glass window is of a very high standard that is rarely seen in painted glass work today.
“If pieces of this picture window were to break, the cost of replacing them to a similar standard would be extremely high.”
Thus with the help of $3000 in grant funding from the council, which was just over half the cost of the restoration project, the window was successfully removed on Wednesday, April 12 for restoration work.
The rehabilitation will be undertaken by Christine Stewart from Glass of Fire.
Moving forward, Bellinger RSL sub-branch’s Susan Lumsdaine said the removal is just the start of the restoration work, and information will follow as it comes to hand.