Before the mosaicists could begin work, the proposed designs were painted by Gabriel Pippet as full-size watercolours on large sheets. These are called ‘cartoons’ and were only ever intended to be working documents. Once the work was completed they were surplus to requirements. However, the majority of them (but not all) were retained in the choir-loft in the Church. Eventually a special box was constructed to store them but even this was insufficient to prevent their degradation.
As one of the first actions of the Mosaics Restoration Project, started in 2022, it was decided to donate them to the Worcestershire Archives and Archaeology Service on a permanent loan basis. As such they are now stored in the appropriate environmental conditions and are available for everyone to view at The Hive in Worcester – not just for those who knew what was in the big box in the choir-loft!
In 2024 the Church was given a grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore the mosaics and the cartoons. A contract was awarded to Worcestershire Archives and Archaeology Services in 2025 to clean, restore and digitise the surviving cartoons. The resulting images are hosted by the and made available to view and download here. Note that the images themselves are sorted into ten folders according to the position of the relevant mosaic in the Church. They are relatively high resolution so may take some time to load.
