A SPECTACULAR Venetian chandelier - worth around £250,000 - that used to hang in a lounge of Manchester Airport has found a new home in St Helens.

The 10 foot long chandelier, which includes 1,300 droplets of clear, smoked grey and amethyst lead glass, now takes pride of place at The World of Glass on Chalon Way.

It is one of four lead glass chandeliers, designed by Royal architect Stefan Buzas, that were specially created for Manchester Airport in the 1960s and became familiar to generations of North West holidaymakers.

They cost £12,000 originally but today it is estimated more than £250,000 would be needed to create just one of them.

Engineers at the St Helens’ tourist attraction had to strengthen a ceiling to support the two tonne chandelier, which took two days to hang.

Ron Helsby, executive director of The World of Glass, said: “The iconic piece of crystal is part of the North West’s heritage so it has been great to work with our partners to restore it and put it on display to everyone in our foyer.”

Manchester Airport took down the chandeliers from Terminal One in 2003 to make way for a major redevelopment and they went into storage.

It was donated to The World of Glass to “preserve the heritage of the region” and restored to its original design with the help of £50,000 of Heritage Lottery Funding and grants from the Pilgrim Trust, The Mersey Partnership and the Rainford Trust.

The five year project to re-create to re-hang the chandelier involved experts ranging from the conservators, David Malik & Sons Limited, to fundraisers, building contractors and structural engineers.

Jackie Neville, head of product development of Manchester Airport, said: “The chandeliers are a much-loved part of Manchester Airport’s heritage and it was important to us that they remained on permanent public display.”