Wall Paintings Restoration

Conservation of the All Saints’ Murals for the Millennium

All Saints’ Church, Ascot Heath, was designed by T.H. Rushforth and constructed by local builder, Joseph Norris, in 1864. Between 1874 and 1900 the plain brick interior of the building was decorated with wall paintings by Heaton, Butler & Bayne, which together with the many stained glass windows, transformed its appearance and created, what John Betjeman described after a visit in 1961, as ‘By far the best church murals in Berkshire’. Paintings adorn the Reredos, the Sanctuary walls, the Chancel walls and ceiling as well as extensive scriptural scenes in the North and South Aisles showing the ‘Good Samaritan’, the ‘Sower’ and the ‘Marriage Feast at Cana’.

During the mid 1980’s the Church faced a crisis. Rising damp had forced large sections of the plastered niches in the Sanctuary off the wall and with the plaster came much of the painted decoration. Conservation of the Reredos, the Sanctuary and the Chancel ceiling were completed in 1989 by Hirst Conservation. At that time patch cleaning of the murals on the Chancel walls showed the richness and beauty which lay beneath a century of dirt and grime but due to lack of funding further work was curtailed.

In 1996 further deterioration to one of the paintings in the North Aisle prompted a new initiative to complete all outstanding restoration work on the murals and provide a new internal lighting scheme. The project also included substantial improvements to public access. So began the long and exhausting work of raising the estimated £76,000 needed for our recently listed Grade 2 Church.

The County Trust committed £4,000, Windsor & Maidenhead Council promised £5,000 and the Diocese of Oxford gave £2,000. The long fight for funds began. A balloon race, on April 1999, signalled the start of our local campaign and the money started to come in. By Easter 2000 we had enough money to make a start on the wall painting works. By June 5 Hirst Conservation were on site and so began the four month long programme of cleaning and conservation. Scaffolding mushroomed all round the Chancel.

It is easy to view conservation work as rather a romantic and creative occupation. Creative it certainly is but for much of the time it is simply really very hard physical work. Gradually a century of dirt, mostly soot from candles and gas lamps, was delicately removed.

Garrick High up on the south wall of the Chancel something interesting appeared. Written in pencil and following the jointing of a stone wall shown in one of the paintings were four street names coinciding with joints in the stone, which looked a bit like part of a street map. ‘Garrick Street’... .‘Honey Lane’... .Great Queen Street’... .‘Little Queen Street’. The mystery was soon resolved. Heaton, Butler & Bayne’s head office was at 14 Garrick Street, with stores and workshops at other locations in Covent Garden. One of the mural painters or workmen must have written the names on as a sort of postscript indicating that the famous Victorian firm had produced the paintings. The street names could be interpreted as a bit of Victorian graffitti’, which 30 feet above the ground was unlikely to be ever seen by anyone. They had not reckoned on Alison Thornton’s arrival on site to clean the murals in Millennium year.

The Scaffolding was removed and the Chancel came alive. Richly coloured detail now shone from the walls; bits of artwork appeared we had not seen before. And so the scaffolding and the focus of work moved to the glorious Angels’ on the Chancel Arch.

One day a visitor arrived during a shower of rain and introduced himself as Mr Robert Bayne, great grandson of the famous stained glass designer and mural painter, Robert Turnill Bayne, whose designs figure in the All Saints’ paintings.

Robert was a mine of information about the company and even produced the original book of paint pigments used by his great grandfather. One section gave the exact formula for the first pure gold paint they used, clearly in evidence in a number of the murals at All Saints’.

At the end of August work started in the North & South Aisles and by the end of September conservation of the paintings was complete. Sarah Warburton arrived to carry out the specialist cleaning of the pulpit and the font and shortly afterwards Graham Smith of CES Lighting came on site to start the interior lighting, with a deadline to complete all electrical work by the end of October. “I’m going to need another week at least” he pleaded. The job was finished with a week to spare and the paintings were rededicated by the Bishop of Reading on 29 October 2000.

We now have a computerised lighting system with full dimming facility. Illumination of the restored murals has transformed the interior of our beautiful Church; and provides a fitting tribute to the vision and craftsmanship of our Victorian cousins; a stunning church interior has been conserved for future generations. There was no finer way to proclaim the work of Christ in our lives as we celebrated Millennium year. Our sincere thanks to all concerned for a job well done. All Saints’ Church is open daily. Visitors are most welcome.

For photographs of some of the wall paintings taken during restoration please click on the following link.

Renovation