Mosaics restoration at St Thomas Church, Isle of Man

Liverpool-based Heritage Tiling & Restoration Co were contacted by the Reverend Sid Mourant BD of St Thomas Church in the Diocese of Sodor & Man (IOM) in 1995 to undertake restoration of the Grade One-listed church's mosaics. Company owner Steve Sinnott takes up the story:

"The main focus of our restoration contract was the full size figure of St Thomas, depicted holding a representation of the church in his arms. The figure's face had been obliterated, to stop further damage, and the face area had been filled in with car body filler, white plaster and polyfiller! Unfortunately not one photograph of the Saint could be found, so I worked out the general look of the Saint's face based on the hundreds I had seen and depicted him as being somewhat mournful as that is the typical expression of most Saints' faces I have seen - not seen a happy or smiling one as yet!

"I obtained some of the replacement Smalti mosaic from Rob Riley, a great mosaic artist in his own right, and the rest was ordered via Edgar Udny & Co of London, who stock a wide range of various mosaic materials and tools. The Saint and other examples of mosaics were in the church chancel. The main pieces after the Saint are Set Square and Spear, an Arab sailing boat and the Alpha & Omega.

"The mosaic is Smalti mosaic, sometimes called Byzantine because that era used more of this mosaic than anywhere else rising to a peak in Constantinople, and possibly the best examples are at Hagia Sophia the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. The other name is Venetian mosaic as the majority of this type of irregular Smalti mosaic is made there.

"Because the mosaic is glass and therefore brittle it can be damaged easily once the substrate has shifted or the locking grout has been eroded, the glass chips and breaks and it can shatter with very little pressure. Because of its irregular sizing and wide colouration it can be more versatile than other types of mosaic and is often used for figure representation as the palette can cover most skin tones etc.

Restoration stages of the Saint’s face.

"Our before, during and after pictures were shown to Peter Van Treek who heads a brilliant mosaic tiling company - Gustav Van Treek, established in 1887 -  and Peter was astonished that I had managed to carry out this intricate work in such a short space of time!

"Apparently his company would have employed an artist to sketch up cartoons first. The Saint’s face and other damage took me approximately nine hours to complete and the damage to the other mosaic pictures took another day in total.

"The Set Square and Spear mosaic roundel above St Thomas is of interest because the Set Square represents St Thomas as a builder of churches and the Spear his martyrdom when he was killed with a spear in India.

"There was damage to the gold leaf mosaic and other sections in this roundel. 

"The Arab sailing ship represents St Thomas upon his journey as a missionary. The sail of the ship was very badly damaged and had lifted away from the bedding screed, the background was also loose and there were pieces missing from that also. The Arab ship is shown here as fully restored which involved cleaning with a low rpm cleaner and sealing over a whole day to allow the coats to dry properly and bond correctly to the preceding layer. More coats than usual were applied so that the mosaic would be able to withstand the rigours of daily foot traffic and cleaning etc.

"I also used a flexible based adhesive and grout to give the mosaic a better chance of surviving another century.

Arab sailing ship Smalti mosaic fully restored.

"The other roundels are the Alpha and Omega mosaic symbols at the beginning and the end.

"They had the least amount of damage but they had sustained some. The main floors that the figure and roundels are set into are fine Italian marble - the work was striking and I enjoyed being able to restore the Saint and the rest of the flooring. It is always a pity when the craftsmanship of a long dead artisan is covered up with carpet, sadly even some of our projects have been covered with carpet - not because our work wasn’t good enough but to preserve the flooring! Personally I see little point in paying for work to be carried out and then paying again to cover it up.

Alpha and Omega symbols fully restored.

Apparently it took three years of fundraising, various legacies and a Mhelliah which is almost confined to the IOM but used to be popular in all Celtic regions - Mhelliah fairs are held traditionally at the end of summer or Harvest time at which all produce grown/made is sold to the highest bidder in auction fashion.

"Dating back over a century, a Mhelliah is thought to have originated in Celtic countries and is still a popular social occasion on the IOM where they are held traditionally in the September/October of each year.

"The format, besides that of an auction of produce, is sometimes accompanied by the singing of Harvest Festival hymns such as Come, Ye Thankful People and We Plough the Fields and Scatter. These events are usually held in aid of charities but were originally a social gathering to celebrate the harvest and thank the Pagan Gods for a fruitful year.

"My original contract was for the restoration of the Saint figure and the roundels, however I extended the scope of the contract to include cleaning the Wheatsheaf and Grape and Vine mosaic around the altar plus all of the marble in the aisles.

"I also repaired all the chipped marble in the aisles. Two reasons for this -  one I had some spare time as the returning ferry to Liverpool was storm bound and because I knew the budget did not extend to the extra work and the contract would have looked unfinished if I hadn’t restored the rest of the church floors.

"Revd Sid is a great guy as well and we enjoyed a few meals and had a pint together. It was a pleasure to meet him. I left a full schedule for the floor maintenance and have supplied the church in the past with additional sealer. It was an enjoyable contract and I got a lot of satisfaction out of it."

The Rev Sid himself was full of praise for the company's workmanship, commenting: "Although working to an agreed contract Mr Sinnott saw his work as much more than that. He saw it as a labour of love for God's House, and this pervaded all his qualities of workmanship. Added to this he freely gave advice for the cleaning and preserving of the mosaics and marble.

"We would have no hesitation in recommending him to others - he is a highly skilled craftsman devoted to a high degree of excellence in his work - and we would gladly employ his services again in the future. In fact we are intending to do this in the near future."

25 years after the restoration work was carried out these photos (below) were taken by churchwarden John Walmsley and Revd Canon Philip Frear - in some cases as recently as Christmas 2019. Steve commented: "It shows that my work has stood the test of time and the thousands of footfalls per year over the past 25 years."

Revd Canon Philip Frear also praised the standard of workmanship undertaken a quarter of a century ago saying: "I am pleased to report the work that Steve undertook in 1995 has stood the test of time and the mosaics are as good as the day Steve completed the work.

"The area that was restored is what you may call a heavy traffic part of the chancel and from my observations all mosaic tiles are still in situ with none missing and the images are as well-defined as when Steve finished them.

"In my opinion the work was completed to a very high standard and is a credit to Steve’s professionalism. I would have no hesitation in recommending the work of Steve Sinnott, Heritage Tiling and Restoration Company to any other church or similar."

For further information visit heritagetiling.com