3-011-382 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

St. James's Church, Bury St. Edmunds, lately restored, 1864. Engraving from a photograph by Cundall and Downes. 'Mr. Gilbert Scott was consulted, and...[it] was decided to remove the galleries, which destroyed the beauty of the church at the west end and on the north side...The principal feature, however, of the restorations is the new and very beautiful oaken roof...The clerestory windows, six-and-thirty in number, have all been refilled with Messrs. Butler and Heaton's stained glass, and have a very beautiful appearance...As to the exterior of the church, the east and west gables have been carried up to the height of the high-pitched roof, with new coping and handsome stone crosses. The roof is covered with green Welsh slate, and above the great west window is a stone niche corresponding with those on each side of the doorway. The restorations have been effected, under the direction of Mr. Gilbert Scott, by his assistant, Mr. J. Drayton Wyatt; Mr. Darkin, of Bury St. Edmunds, has acted as general superintendent of the works; the contract for the repairs and general restoration of the edifice was taken by Mr. Thomas Farrow; and the whole of the work has been carried out in a satisfactory manner'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.