Stained glass artist’s ‘surprise’ at MBE honour
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A glass artist who has worked on some of the country’s great historic buildings has been made an MBE.
Stephen Clare, 62, is regarded as one of the world’s leading stained glass craftsmen and has helped restore the stained glass windows at Wells Cathedral, St George’s Chapel at Windsor and King’s College Cambridge.
Mr Clare, from Wells, Somerset, has spent his adult life working in stained glass conservation and founded Holy Well Glass in 1995.
The company now employs 18, including his son Jack, and is the largest stained glass studio in the UK.
Describing the moment he found out about the honour, Mr Clare said: “It is a wonderful surprise and I thought it was a joke when I got the letter.”
Mr Clare is also a stained glass conservator by Royal Appointment to The Queen and national adviser on stained glass to the National Trust.
He has overseen a number of notable projects, including the three-year conservation programme to Winchester Cathedral’s great medieval glazing scheme and the five-year project on Wells Cathedral’s famed 14th century The Jesse Window.
“That was a fantastic privilege because it was my local cathedral,” Mr Clare added.
