Fragments of ancient stained glass blown from the windows of the Parish Church of St. Laurence at Hawkhurst, Kent, England, UK, when a German V1 flying bomb exploded in the churchyard in August 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, were painstakingly collected and assembled into this new roundel. The salvage effort is remembered by the inscription below the roundel and a twisted shard of metal shrapnel from the V1 itself is displayed on a windowsill. Extensive repairs to the medieval church took 13 years, until 1957.
Hawkhurst, Kent, England, United Kingdom: jumbled fragments of ancient stained glass blown from the windows of the Parish Church of St. Laurence when a German V1 flying bomb exploded in the churchyard in August 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, were painstakingly salvaged and assembled into a new roundel. The church also benefited in the 1950s from donations of ancient stained and painted glass from other locations, but St Laurence’s remained closed to the public for 13 years, until 1957, while extensive repairs to the medieval structure were carried out. A twisted fragment of metal shrapnel from the bomb itself is now displayed on a windowsill in the church and the attempts to salvage pieces of the shattered glass are remembered in the inscription seen in this image.
Size: 2418px × 3618px
Location: Parish Church of St Laurence, Hawkhurst, Kent, England, UK
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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