Tasmanian craftsman completes final church restoration
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Gavin Merrington, a 64-year-old stained glass worker from Tasmania, Australia, recently finished restoring the original windows of the 146-year-old Brickhill memorial church in Campbell Town, marking what he expects to be his last major restoration project after nearly 50 years in the trade.
Merrington began his career after seeing a newspaper advertisement at age 16 and later travelled to Europe on a Churchill Fellowship to study glazing and glass preservation.
He applied these skills to projects across Tasmania, including work on churches in Launceston and Hobart. The Campbell Town project involved repairing lead and glass in the church’s main window, a process that required hand-painting and firing approximately 90 individual glass pieces. Merrington carefully transported the restored glass from his South Hobart studio and installed it 5 metres above the ground, requiring precision and teamwork.
Heritage building specialist Peter Evans, who collaborated with Merrington on the Brickhill project, noted the close-knit nature of Tasmania’s heritage trades. Matt Collins, the current owner of Brickhill, who moved to Australia from Ohio in 2017, purchased the deconsecrated church with the intention of preserving its history and now operates it as short-stay accommodation. Merrington plans to continue with smaller jobs and consultancy work, confident that his employee will carry on his skills.
