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Artist Frederick Starkey, who taught at what was then known as Chester College, had become deeply distressed by the nuclear arms race, which he feared would end in devastating destruction.

A retired naval officer, Mr Starkey was active in the peace movement and, when he heard that two Christian ministers were planning to hold a peace meeting in Wrexham, decided to make his own contribution.

The cross is built on a welded frame, to which tiles of amber glass have been attached. Each tile fuses together many small pieces of glass, forming a ragged surface that catches the light.

After acting as the focus of the meeting in Wrexham, where Mr Starkey read out the International Prayer for Peace, the cross needed a new home.

He was delighted when Arthur Poulton, the college chaplain at Chester at the time, offered to take it in.

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