Thirteen is a good number for St Sampson’s Church. All our thirteen windows have been restored with the help of thirteen grant funders and three individuals. A grand total of £53,000 was raised. Thank you to you all.
Our funding research took us in all directions and we made some fascinating discoveries. Many pleasant hours were spent wading through family trees and church records. We discovered connections all around the world, as well as a short distance down the road.
We discovered a link to William Wilberforce and the campaign for the abolition of slavery - the east window above the altar is dedicated to Admiral Samuel Thornton who died in 1859. Samuel Thornton was the brother of Emily Rice, wife of the then Rector, Revd. HM (Horace) Rice. Samuel Thornton and his sister Emily were the children of Samuel Thornton, MP for Surrey, a campaigner with his more famous nephew and friend, William Wilberforce MP, for the abolition of slavery. Both men were part of the so-called Clapham Sect
The chancel (south) window is dedicated to Major Percy John Rice (1810-1850) and Lucy Maria Elton (nee Rice) (1814- 1846), brother and sister of the then Rector of South Hill, Revd. Horace Rice. The inscription contains the words “Ah my brother! Ah my sister!” Lucy Maria was the great, great, Grandmother of Julia Rice Elton, who we traced. She was unaware of her family window but delighted to discover it.
Other windows are connected to Victorian Curates of South Hill - Mary Fookes (south aisle west window) was the mother of Curate William Fookes and the tower west window is dedicated to John Sergeant, Curate for sixty years.
Other windows are dedicated to local families, descendants of some of whom still live in the parish. Full details of our research so far are in a folder in the church.
The work to repair the windows started in November 2021 . What a wonderful moment in January when the first three restored windows were replaced. No-one realised exactly how much difference it would make. No more rusty bars, no more wobbly glass panes - simply beautiful windows letting in the light and allowing us to see the trees outside.
Five more windows were taken out in the intense heatwave of August 2022 and put back in December, amid freezing temperatures. The inscriptions can all now be easily read, the colours of the stained glass vibrant and fulsome. It feels like a true honouring of the local families Trehane, Body, Dunston and Hitchens.
The final five windows were removed in May 2023, including the East window, which was a sad sight to see boarded up, but glorious when replaced in August. By the end of September 2023 all our windows were back.
How wonderful that all the windows are now fully restored. Watching the skilled heritage craftsmen of Dan Humphries Stained glass Ltd and C.F. Piper & son at work has been amazing. Their knowledge is immense, and we are very grateful to them for the sensitive restoration that they completed. And it came in under budget!