The father and son team behind The Glasshouse Studio in Horsham spent a month working on site at St George Church.

They landed the work when a team from the Caribbean Island was visiting the UK looking for restorers.

Managing director Clifford Durrant, 55, said: "It was a tremendous job - a wonderful opportunity.

"We restore stained glass windows right across Sussex and in royal palaces but this was the first one in a hot country.

"It was a beautiful church even though the island is almost third world."

Clifford and his son Simon, 30, visited the town of St George at the beginning of February to begin the project.

The logistics of flying the early 20th century glass back to England would have been a costly and risky operation.

So the New Street firm transported its business to Barbados.

And Virgin Atlantic even paid for the cost of shipping the materials and tools to the tropical island.

However the conditions on Barbados made for a challenging restoration process.

Clifford explained: "The island has been formed on coral deposits. The main source of stone for buildings is therefore coral.

"It is a very soft stone, easy to carve and shape and it is also the source for the island's beautiful soft white sands.

"If used in church construction the heavy rain over almost a century can leach out from the coral stone and run over the surface of the stained glass leaving a calcium deposit which is baked on with the strong sun."

This left the glass, created by the Studio of John Hall in London, almost unrecognisable from its original form.

The pair cleaned each tiny piece of glass in the church windows, being careful not to damage the painted decoration which had been fired on to the surface.

Then new English lead sourced from the UK was used to rebuild the windows to exact original dimensions.

Stained glass usually lasts about 100 years before it needs restoration - so the Horsham team has safeguarded this piece of heritage for generations to come.