Stained Glass of Percy Bacon

Lady Chapel East. Nativity 1919.

Lady Chapel East. Nativity.

Posted 11 March 2022

St John the Evangelist was built from designs by Frederick and Horace Francis in 1856 for William Parker, who is described in the Pevsner guide of 2010 as the "rich and pious squire of The Abbey".¹ Much of the rather dull glass in the church is by Wailes. The east window is by Hardman, and equally as uninspiring. The Lady Chapel itself was created in 1919, also gifted by the Parker family, as a memorial to Thomas Cowper Parker, who was killed in action near Ypres in 1917. Pevsener suggests that the window is from a design by George Fellowes Prynne, who may have been responsible for the carved oak parclose screen around the chapel, as well as the altar with gilded panels, and the carved angles standing guard atop the tall screen around it, all made by Dart and Francis of Crediton. Ruth Sharville has an entry on her website for Skirwith, but leaves the attribution hanging.

The window in the east of the Lady Chapel is unsigned, but undoubtedly by Percy Bacon, and the connection with George Fellowes Prynne certainly gives the attribution more weight, even though the trademark Bacon Studios lettering on the inscription is absent. Aside from the obvious artistic qualities; the style of the painting, the elaborate architectonic niches and wide framing columns in white glass, the infant in the manger with outsretched arms, all point to a Bacon Studios work. Futher attributional weight is provided by the similarity of the design with another work of 1922 by the studio in the Lady Chapel at Sandy, Bedfordshire which is signed.

The window is a simple Nativity scene with all the usual symbolism. In the foreground of the left light is featured a single visitor who kneels in adoration before the Virgin and Child. He is well dressed, and his hat and crooked staff lie on the ground beside him, but he seems neither Wise Man, nor shepherd, though the words from Luke on the ribbons above the lights held by demi-angels does suggest the latter: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace & goodwill" (Luke 2:14).

On the wall of the chapel is a brass memorial plaque bearing the Parker coat of arms:

The inscription on the window itself echoing Luke 1:46-47 reads:

1. Hyde, Matthew: The Buildings of England, Cumbria : Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness, 2010, p625