Manchester Town Hall stained glass transformed into a charity jewellery collection

Stained glass salvaged from Manchester Town Hall has been transformed into a unique jewellery collection.

The Town Hall Jewellery collection has been created by Lin Fletcher, a stained-glass artist and one of the expert team tasked with repairing and restoring more than 4,000 windows as part of the Manchester Town Hall restoration project.

The jewellery is now for sale at the Manchester Central Library shop with all the profits going to the Lord Mayor’s Charity. Each item in the collection, which includes earrings, pendants, and cufflinks, is a one-of-a-kind creation, complete with flaws and imperfections in the glass.

As part of the Town Hall renovation, windows were removed, and their condition was assessed. Much of the original glass was still in good condition; this was cleaned and reset with new leading.

Where it couldn’t be reused, the weakened or damaged pieces of original glass were replaced with new sections. This authentic replacement glass (offcuts from the new glass that was brought in to replace what couldn’t be reused) was cut to shape as required and added to complete the pattern.

Lin recognised that these small offcuts of original and authentic glass, although unusable in the windows, had wonderful heritage value, and, as a jeweller, saw the opportunity to transform the fragments into something new.

There are two types in the overall collection: the ‘original’ range uses the pieces of original glass that were installed in the 1870s. The ‘authentic’ range uses the offcuts of the new glass that was specially created to replace the worn sections of the original windows.

Each item is handmade using the Tiffany method, which encases the glass piece in a lead-free solder. Earrings are hung from silver hooks, and the pendants are supplied separately so that you can choose your preferred chain.

Speaking about the collection, Lin said: “I realised very quickly that this ‘waste’ glass from the Town Hall could be beautifully repurposed, giving Mancunians everywhere a chance to have a souvenir of the much-loved icon. I wanted to make sure that the income from these items went back into the city, and passing on the profits to the Lord Mayor’s Charity seemed like the perfect way to do this.”