Stained Glass Carlisle

Founded in 1994, the Leadbitter Glass Studio has been supplying Overlay Stained Glass panels to homes and businesses across Carlisle ever since, delivering to every other part of the UK too. Carlisle Cathedral’s East Window was recently voted the nation’s favourite cathedral stained glass window, its upper tracery dating to the 1350s and its lower panels added by Hardman & Co. of Birmingham in 1861.

Every panel is designed and manufactured in our own Decorative Glass Studio — either from your own photo or idea, or from one of the hundreds of patterns in our gallery. Our Overlay Stained Glass comes as either toughened single glazing or a resilient double-glazed unit, and suits a front door, a landing window, or any other glazed opening in the home equally well. The great majority of orders qualify for free delivery across Carlisle.

We’ve supplied Overlay Stained Glass for a Prime Minister’s home, for Hollywood film sets, and for well-known musicians and billionaires — though the vast majority of what we make is still for homeowners across Carlisle. We also produce other styles of Decorative Glass for Carlisle clients, including Bevelled Glass, Etched Glass, and Fused Glass.

See your glass before we create it!

Our Free Client Pages Design Service

That question is exactly what the free Client Page attached to every Carlisle order answers before we ever pick up a lead strip. Within a few days of ordering, we post a full-colour, to-scale drawing of your design so you can judge it properly rather than imagining it. Not sure about a shade of blue, or want a motif made a little bolder? Tell us and we’ll amend the drawing — there’s no cap on revisions, and production waits until you’re happy.

Image above created using Minster Glass.

How Our Stained Glass Is Made

Traditional leaded glass is really dozens of small individual pieces held together by strips of soft lead, which is precisely why it’s prone to leaks and cracking over time. Our Overlay Stained Glass works differently: the whole design, lead lines included, is built directly onto one continuous sheet of toughened safety glass — there’s no lattice of separate pieces to come apart.

Pilkington K Glass is also available on request, and is required by current building regulations for new window and door installations across Carlisle and the rest of the UK.

We take durability and security as seriously as design, which is why every panel is manufactured with toughened or laminated safety glass from the outset.

Plenty of homeowners have a story about spending a small fortune on traditional leaded glass, only to watch individual pieces crack within weeks. Our Overlay Stained Glass is designed specifically to avoid that.

Our process

We hand-shape lead strips onto the toughened glass to trace out your design first, with no colour applied at this stage. Once that outline is in place, the sheet is turned over and the colourwork begins — each section painted individually, held within its own leaded boundary.

Matching lead lines are then applied to the reverse to mirror the front exactly, so the finished panel is leaded and coloured on both faces, not just one.

A choice of lead finishes is available — see our Leaded Glass page for details.

Ready to have Overlay Stained Glass, or any other decorative glass, made for your Carlisle home or business? Get in touch today for an accurate quote and turnaround time.

Browse Our Leaded Glass Galleries

Our website holds one of the largest collections of decorative glass patterns anywhere. Browse hundreds of Leaded Glass designs in our main gallery, arranged by theme and by door style, to find the right pattern — or simply for inspiration towards your own. Visit the Main Gallery to see what’s possible.

Notable Stained Glass Commissions from the Carlisle area…