Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers
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Exmouth Holy Trinity: George Fellowes-Prynne
Posted 15 December 2022.
Holy Trinity, Exmouth is a fine example of Devon Churches. It stands proudly on the high ground of the town within its own close in an area known as "The Beacon". The original church was built by John Rolle, the 1st Baron Rolle between 1824 and 1833. This was described by the Building and Engineering News in May of 1916 as, "a sample of the worst type of so-called Gothic churches built about 1830, and consisted of a brick and stucco building, with columns constructed partly in stone and partly in cast-iron, cement-moulded arches, with clerestory above, and a flat lath-and-plaster, imitation-groined roof (read the full quote
here).1
Article published in the Building News 24 May 1916, with illustration of the inerior of Holy Trinty by the architect of the rebuilt church, George Fellowes-Prynne.
"HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, EXMOUTH".
The interior view illustrated today, from the Royal Academy Exhibition drawing, is taken looking across the church in a southwest direction from the north transept. The original church was a sample of the worst type of so-called Gothic churches built about 1830, and consisted of a brick and stucco building, with columns constructed partly in stone and partly in cast-iron, cement-moulded arches, with clerestory above, and a flat lath-and-plaster, imitation-groined roof. Galleries occupied the upper part of the aisles and west end of nave, cutting half-way into the columns. The only redeeming points in the original building were its lofty proportions and solid, strongly built walls. The complete remodelling and partial rebuilding of the church were taken in hand some few years ago from the designs and under the supervision of Mr. Geo. H. Fellowes Prynne, K.K.I.B.A., of Westminster. The work included a completely new chancel, chapel, vestries, and organ chamber, and transepts; the casing of the whole of the tower, nave, and aisles in stone; inserting new doorways, tracery windows, and entirely remodelling the design of the tower, including the forming of a lofty western arch to the tower, with baptistery under (which is shown in the drawing), the renewal of the nave columns, arches, and clerestory windows in stone, and the preparation for decorative mosaic panels on the nave walls. The old oak seat ends have been used as a dado around the aisle walls, and a new apparatus for heating and electric light installed. Messrs. R. Wilkins and Sons, of Bristol, were the builders, the heating being carried out by Messrs. C. P. Kinnell and Co., of Southwark Street, London, S.E. The total cost of the work was about £15,000.
By the turn of the century the church had fallen into disrepair and was poorly maintained. Between 1905 and 1907 Mark Rolle, a nephew of the 1st Baron Rolle commissioned George Fellowes-Prynne to completely remodel and enlarge the church. Rolle had previously in 1893, commissioned Fellowes-Prynne to design a new church at Budleigh Salterton. This involved the replacement of the window mouldings with Bath stone, renewal of the window traceries, the addition of a Lady Chapel to the north transept, and a new organ. The aisle galleries were removed, the chancel extended and a west gallery installed. The latter has recently been removed and a whole suite of rooms installed at a first floor level, encased in large glass walls; a necessary modernistic re-purposing perhaps, but nonetheless the whole result is (at least to this author's eye) a little insensitive. Mark Rolle died in 1907 as the renovation work was near completion, and his benevolence is commemorated by a brass plaque in the lady (or Rolle) Chapel. Click here
The remodelled church from designs by George Fellowes-Prynne shortly after its completion in 1907.
PD Image from a postcard in the author's collection.
for early images of the remodelled church.
Interior of the remodelled church from designs by George Fellowes-Prynne prior to 1913 and before the new reredos were installed. Viewed from the west gallery.
PD Image from a postcard in the author's collection.
Interior of the remodelled church from designs by George Fellowes-Prynne circa 1919.
PD Image from a postcard in the author's collection.
Interior of the remodelled church from designs by George Fellowes-Prynne post 1913.
PD Image from a postcard in the author's collection.
Percy Bacon & Brothers was engaged by Fellowes-Prynne to execute a complete and uniform glazing scheme, a commission Percy Bacon himself would have relished given his doctrine of "harmony" in church decoration. Sadly much of his work is now lost. In February 1942 German aircraft dropped three bombs which exploded in the area of The Beacon2. One bomb, at 1 Bicton Place to the north west of the church tragically killed five people. A great deal of the glazing in the north and south of the nave seems to have been badly damaged, though specific reports have yet to come to light for this project. Only the east window and those in the Lady Chapel on the east side of the north transept survived intact. Four of the large windows in the nave and north transept and one lancet in the north wall were replaced after the war (circa 1957)3 by Wippell & Co. with designs by George Cooper Abbs (see page 3 of this entry). Two other windows in the nave have been replaced with clear uncoloured quarries but in these are the preserved figures of four saints which were part of the original Bacon Studios scheme. These repairs were presumably also executed by Wippell & Co. Additionally, a great deal of the tracery lights throughout the church which were also part of the 1907 scheme seem to have survived, including the four Wippell & Co./Abbs windows. All the main lights of the windows not mentioned above are of plain uncoloured glass. A full list of the Percy Bacon works has yet to be established, and this website will be updated if more information comes to light, and time permits. See page 3 of this entry for further details of lost works.
East window: The Church Triumphant. 1907. Installed as part of the original George Fellowes-Prynne restoration scheme.
Zoom image with mouse wheel.
Click/drag to explore.
The east window is imposing, sitting
high above
the altar and extravagant carved
reredos,
The reredos were a later, 1913 addition designed by George Fellowes-Prynne,4 and executed by Messrs. H. H. Martyn & Co. of Cheltenham.5
The east window is part of the original glazing scheme commissioned by the architect George Fellowes-Prynne. The theme of the window is "The Church Triumphant". Top centre is Christ in Majesty, the scroll around his halo inscribed, "King of Kings, Lord of Lords". In the upper left light, St John the Evangelist and the Blessed Virgin, and in the upper right, St Mary Magdalene and St John the Baptist.
In the middle lights:
Left: The Prophets Elijah and Isaiah. Both hold their iconographic symbols: Elijah holds a raven symbolic of the bird that brought him food when commanded by God to hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan River (Kings 17:2-16). Isaiah holds tongs with a burning coal (Isaiah 6:6-8).
Centre: St Peter and St Paul
Right: Moses holding the stone tablets, and Abraham who holds the sacrificial knife.
In the lower lights:
Left: St Stephen, first Christian martyr, the seated figure of St Augustine as Archbishop of Canterbury, and St Gregory.
Centre: The angels Gabriel and Michael.
Right: St Alban, a seated St Boniface as Archbishop of Mainz holding a model of a church, and St Jerome. The names of Jerome and Boniface appear transposed.
In the tracery three angels hold scrolls which read: (l-r), Sanctus Pater, Sanctus Filius, Sanctus Spiritus, with angels in the smaller lights playing musical instruments. At the very top an IHS monogram.
Not all the window can be easily seen as the top of the reredos obscures the base, so it is unclear if there is a dedication or signature.
References & Notes: Use your browser's Back button to return to text.
- Building News and Engineering Journal Vol 110 Jan-June 1916, p422.
- Devon Heritage website: Casualties of the Bombing of Exmouth.
- A Directory of Stained Glass Windows; British Society of Master Glass-Painters; 1966, p92.
- Western Times - Friday 02 May 1913 , p10.
- Exmouth Journal - Saturday 31 May 1913, p5.
- Further information and photos on the George Fellowes-Prynne Website by Ruth Sharville. This includes a further image of the interior probably made not long after the 1907 remodelling, and includes a view of one of the Bacon windows in the south aisle (SA1), that of a standing saint, one of the series executed by the Bacon Studios for the north and south aisles, two of which are preserved in a much renovated state (see page 3 of this entry).
Location Map:
Sat Nav Post Code: EX8 2AB