Stained Glass of Percy Bacon

Posted 05 August 2024.

Drawing upon the writings of William of Worcester, Sabin Baring-Gould confidently asserts that St Euny (or Uny) was one of a party of Irish "colonists" that came from Penwith and Carnmarth with St Hia, St Erc, and others, about 495 or 500.¹ Unfortunately Baring-Gould's hagiography is riddled with tenuous identifications with other named saints; Eogain, Eugenius (whose name - he states - in Cornish would have been Euenius or Eunius) and he associates those names with St Euny. Euny is said to have founded a church dedicated to him, but the present edifice was built in 1782, grafted onto a 15th century tower. The church was restored by James Hicks in 1878.²

North Aisle E2: St Uny, BVM & Child, St Francis.

North Aisle 2: St Uny.

North Aisle 2: BVM & Child.

North Aisle 2: St Francis.

North Aisle 2: Dedication.

North Aisle 2: St Uny, BVM and Child, St Francis
All Photographs courtesy of Cornish Stained Glass.

There is a single Percy Bacon window in St Euny's. This simple three-light window executed in 1924 depicts the standing figures of St Uny [sic], the BVM and Christ Child, and St Francis. The window is dedicated to Samuel Sharp Walker (d. 1894), curate at Redruth, Susan Eveline Walker (née Manders) his wife (d. 1910), and their son Francis Harry Walker who died in 1869 less than a year old. The window was given by the Rev. James Manders Walker, son of Samuel and Susan Walker, who was vicar of St Mary Magdalene, Newark, 1919-1929. Rev. Walker is remembered in the South Aisle 1 window of that church.

At the same time as the Redruth window Percy Bacon also executed a window in St Peter's Church, Tempsford, Bedfordshire for Rev Walker.

There is no signature.

Back to top

1. Baring-Gould, S. The lives of the British Saints : the Saints of Wales and Cornwall and such Irish Saints as have dedications in Britain. Hon Soc. of Cymmrodorion, 1908. p470
2. See A Cornish Journey website.
3. Report in Newark Herald, Saturday 15 March 1924, p5.
4. More information on this window is available on the Cornish Stained Glass website.