WORK on a £1 million project dedicated to the SAS is near completion and on course for its grand reveal next month.

The project at Hereford Cathedral named ‘Ascension’ is nine-metres high and consists of 3,000 pieces of European glass in 40 different colours.

A team of three German glass specialists have finished installing the glass with the delicate and intricate work taking just four days to complete.

‘Ascension’, which has been created by the world-renowned, Royal Academy sculptor, John Maine, is one of the most significant pieces of new cathedral art in the world and marks the historic and modern link between Hereford and the SAS.

It will be a focus for reflection, pilgrimage and worship.

All the work has been taking place behind hoardings, with the aim of causing minimum disruption to the normal activities in the 1,300 year-old cathedral, which houses the world-famous Mappa Mundi and Chained Library.

This week has seen the arrival of the stone sculpture, which has been carved from Brazilian blue syenite, golden sandstone from Clashach Quarry, near Elgin in Scotland and black Tournai marble from Belgium.

The base of the stone sculpture includes the famous SAS motto of Who Dares Wins, together with the SAS regimental badge.

A line of poetry will be engraved in the marble, ‘Always A Little Further’, which has been used by the SAS since the 1960s.

The line is from the poem, The Golden Road to Samarkand, by James Elroy Flecker.

The project is being funded through donations by the SAS Regimental Association.

Dean of Hereford, the Very Reverend Michael Tavinor, said: "Ascension has been more than two years in the planning and it is wonderful to see the work going on and to witness how quickly it is all coming together.

"It is going to be such a marvellous addition to the beautiful artwork in the cathedral and I know that, like me, people can not wait to see the finished piece."