Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Exeter Cathedral: Memorial to R. D. Blackmore; 1904. Image published in 'Devon Notes and Queries', Vol 3, 1904-1906.

Memorial Window to Richard Doddrige Blackmore, author of "Lorna Doone".
Source: Devon Notes and Queries, Vol III, 1904-1906.

Exeter Cathedral: Memorial to R. D. Blackmore; 1904. New window which replaced the Bacon Studios window damaged in World War II.

The extant window by A F Erridge and executed by Powells which replaced the original.

Posted 10 December 2022

The 30th April 1904 edition of the "Fishing Gazette"¹ carried an article describing the unveiling of the memorial window and tablet to the English author R. D. Blackmore in Exeter Cathedral. Although it does not go into detail, the article alludes to Blackmore's love of angling, and that the subscribers to the memorial were his fishermen friends. His admirers in America seem to have been instrumental in organising the subscriptions to fund the work under the charge of one Mr Albert H. Whitin, and being so far removed, a delay in the provision of the funds allowed time for Percy Bacon & Brothers to make the generous offer of executing the window at a much reduced price, as a mark of their appreciation of the author.² This was not the first time the fishing fraternity had raised the capital to fund the installation of a window commemorating one of "their own", and neither was it Percy Bacon's first time in providing his services to that fraternity. In 1895 the Bacon Studio executed the Izaak Walton memorial window in St Dunstan in the West, Fleet Street, London.

Exeter Cathedral:
Memorial tablet to R. D. Blackmore below the window; 1904.

The window which is above the west entrance (north side), was of three lights and depicted the standing figures of Jonathan, David and Samson. These were suggested as symbolic of the attributes of the character, John Ridd the hero in R. D. Blackmore's seminal work, "Lorna Doone" - namely, Love and Tenderness, Courage and Strength, though it is not entirely clear who was the originator of the idea.³ Beneath the window a marble tablet (photo above) in high relief by Harry Hems of Exeter was erected. The window and tablet were unveiled by Mr Eden Phillpotts on 26th April 1904.⁴

On the nights of 3rd - 4th May 1942 a German bomb landed on St James' chapel in the south choir aisle causing considerable damage to the cathedral. All the windows were badly damaged or completely destroyed in the blast.

Repairs to Exeter Cathedral after the war took until 1952. The Blackmore memorial window was eventually replaced by one designed by A. F. Erridge
Arthur Frederick Erridge was born in Kensington, London on 29 July 1899. He studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central St Martin's), and was employed by James Powell Ltd., working alongside James Hogan (1883-1948) as a designer in stained glass and ecclesiastical furnishing 1913-1940. Although his artistic work was interrupted by the war when he worked as an agricultural labourer in Suffolk, he later went on to design stained glass for Wippell & Co. in Exeter. He died in 1961. and installed by Powell & Sons. This new window depicts the same three main characters as the original, thereby preserving the initial concept. In the tracery are the figures of Lorna Doone and John Ridd, and in the top tracery light a depiction of John Ridd wrestling another man watched by the villagers, perhaps a reference to Chapter 28 of Blackmore's novel. It is unclear whether these tracery themes copy the original Bacon window.

Back to top

1. Fishing Gazette, 30 April 1904, p281.
2. West Somerset Free Press - Saturday 08 August 1903.
3. The Leader in Melbourne, Australia in its report of 11th June 1904 suggests that the idea for the window came from Percy Bacon. However, E. Marston, who was the father of R. B. Marston, the editor of the Fishing Gazette, and a frequent correspondent with R. D. Blackmore, states that the idea originated from Eden Phillpots. (See Marston, E. After Works. Fragments from the Workshop of an Old Publisher, 1904, p139).
4. Devon Notes & Queries Vol III 1904-1906, p80.