After months away in the hands of expert conservators, the breathtaking 13th-century stained glass windows of St John’s Church, Dronfield, have finally come home.
Thanks to drone footage captured during their delicate reinstallation, you can now witness the extraordinary care, craft and community pride behind one of the region’s most significant heritage restorations.
This was more than a logistical exercise — it was a reconnection with the past. The windows, among the finest examples of medieval stained glass in northern England, had been partially conserved in the 1970s and 80s, when they were sealed behind Perspex. Over time, pigment loss and masking dulled their visual impact.
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the latest phase has removed those barriers, restored their colour, and revealed them as they were meant to be seen — a radiant cascade of medieval storytelling in glass.
The project has been a true team effort. Holy Well Glass in Somerset led the painstaking conservation. Pinnacle Conservation from York provided specialist stonework support. Local volunteers helped document the work and supported outreach. Schools and community groups engaged with the history through art, learning how these windows once taught moral lessons to congregations through vivid animal symbolism and sacred stories.
What the video captures so powerfully is that this wasn’t just about preserving old windows — it was about bringing a town’s heritage back to life.