Corpus of Percy Bacon

The Corpus of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Maids Moreton, St Edmund's

Buckinghamshire

St Edmund's Church, Maids Moreton

It is said that in 1450 St Edmund's Church was built by the two daughters of Lord Peovre (or Peyvre), and a painted shield and an engraved plaque over the the north door attests to this supposition;

SISTER and MAIDS,
DAUGHTERS OF THE LORD PEOVRE
THE PIOUS : AND
Munificent Founders
of this Church

The maids were buried in the nave of the church but their grave was covered over in the renovations in the 19th century, the brasses having been removed.

The compact church consists of a nave, chancel, north and south porches, and vestry (1882), with an embattled west tower. There are some interesting features worthy of notice which are unusually grand for a small parish church; the elaborate fan vaulted ceiling in the south porch; the wide outward splay of the belfry window mullions, fully the width of the wall, and perhaps unique; the embattled canopy over the west door. On the wall behind the sedilia is a much disfigured painting of the Last Supper. Gibbs suggests such embellishments point to the likelihood that St Edmund's was a "votive" church rather than merely a parochial parish church.¹ The church was restored in 1888 and again in the 20th century. Inside, all the walls a whitewashed and with mostly plain glass there is a pleasing brightness to it. The 19th century restoration included the laying of Minton tiles, though these, if still present in the nave, have been covered with rather vulgar and cheap wooden flooring, more appropriate for a domestic kitchen than a church, and the chancel is carpeted,

Much of the ancient glass was destroyed in 1642 by the Parliamentarian forces under Colonel Purefoy of Warwickshire when he was stationed at nearby Buckingham. Some larger pieces have been retained and reset in the tower west window, and some smaller including the tops of canopies in the tracery of the east window, described below.

Posted 23 May 2022.

East Window; Doctrine of the Holy Incarnation: 1898

Stained glass window by Percy Bacon and Brothers, St Edmunds, Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire. East Window.

East window: 1893: Crucifixion.

Bacon coat of arms rebus.

St Edmund's Church, Maids Moreton: East Window by Percy Bacon & Brothers 1898

The east window of five lights by Percy Bacon & Brothers was installed in 1898 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and was unveiled in a thanksgiving ceremony on Monday 20th June 1898.²

The window's theme is the Christian Doctrine of the Holy Incarnation of Christ. The central light depicting the crucifixion is flanked by other events in his life; The Holy Family in the stable, Baptism, Appearance to Mary Magdalene and Ascension. In the predella five angels hold scrolls with biblical quotations associated with the figurative scenes above; We have seen his star in the East | He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove | It is finished | I am the resurrection and the life | I ascend unto my father and your father. In the central light, and in an unusual departure from orthodoxy, the top and arms of the cross are covered with a drape which is surmounted by a mitre. Vines curl around the cross behind the figure of Christ. The Canopies are extravagant

The Bacon family shield which the firm used as its rebus from about 1896 can be seen in the bottom right hand corner.

Percy Bacon shield rebus used between 1896 and 1898.

In the tracery fragments of the 15th century glass broken by the Parliamentarian forces had been reset prior to Bacon's involvement, but these are somewhat incoherent.

References: Use your browser's Back button to return to text.

Gibbs, R. The Buckinghamshire Miscellany, 1841. p88.
Buckingham Express, Saturday 18 June 1898. p4. See also The Builder 2nd July 1898 p15.

Location Map:

NGR: SP 70637 35168
Sat Nav Post Code: MK18 1QD