Restoration project on minster’s artwork is worth its weight in gold

Decades on, that glimmering piece of 24-carat material has finally found a permanent home in Doncaster Minster.

Mrs Kendell, aged 79, was given to encourage her to pursue her talent for art, but as time went by, the leaf became buried among her box of brushes and tools.

Yet in a stroke of luck, the grandmother’s discovered the sheet just as a makeover began on a piece of artwork in the 19th-century church building in the heart of her home town.

The leaf was used by expert conservators brought in to restore the reredos - paintwork, stonework and gilding behind the altar. The completed project has been unveiled to the public this week.

“I heard they were doing up the minster and I thought I’d like to contribute, I wanted it to go to some good use,” said Mrs Kendell.

In the 150 years since the church was built, the spectacular scenes depicting Jesus and his disciples had suffered damage and neglect.

Only patchy repairs had been carried out on the reredos - a collaboration between the church’s architect Sir George Gilbert Scott and noted stonemason John Birnie Philip - until a £51,000 legacy from a late member of the congregation set the wheels in motion.

Additional funding from Heritage Lottery, along with a wealth of donations from local people raised enough to make Reredos Revealed a reality.

The story of the artwork and its conservation forms a new exhibition at the minster. The Bishop of Doncaster marked the completion of the work with a re-dedication service attended by Mrs Kendell last night.

Louise O’Brien, fundraising officer at Doncaster Minster, said: “It has been a wonderful project and seems to have struck a chord with lots of members of the public.”