Percy Bacon & Brothers Stained Glass

Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Coggeshall, St Peter ad Vincula (lost works).

Essex

Coggeshall St Peter ad Vincula Design for Organ

Drawing by Ernest Geldart for one of the screens, (facing the chancel). PD Image.

Interior of St Peter ad Vincula, Coggeshall, early 20th century.
The organ with decorated pipes by Percy Bacon & Brothers is just visible between the columns of the south arcade, and behind Ernest Geldart's screen.
PD Image from a postcard in the author's collection.

Drawing by Ernest Geldart for the screen, (facing the chancel).

Organ Pipe Decoration. 1895.

Posted 30 September 2023.

An earlier organ installed in 1873 had, "gone out of repair", so in 1895 a new one was commissioned from Messrs. Bishop and Son, London at a cost of £450.¹ It was dedicated on St Thomas's Day 1895. Ernest Geldart provided the designs for the screens, the carving was carried out by Mr W. B. Polley of Coggeshall, and the pipe decoration by Percy Bacon & Brothers. The Chelmsford Chronicle described the decoration as; "..richly guilded and coloured, [with the] noticable feature in the decoration being that each pipe has Its proper signature, written in old English black letter on the mouth. This means any pipe may easily be identified in case of accidental cyphering".

During the night of 16th September 1940 a German bomb exploded in the churchyard of St Peter ad Vincula which severely damaged the north arcade bringing much of it crashing to the ground. The nave roof also came down, as did part of the tower some time later. The huge east window and rood screen survived, and from contemporary photos, so did much of the fabric in the south aisle. The Coggeshall Museum website takes up the story:

"The top of the tower had to be demolished and the ruins were cleared and tidied up. The chancel and the two side chapels were relatively undamaged and it was decided that they would have to serve as the church until reconstruction could be undertaken. To make a usable space, the arch between Chancel and Nave, and the two side arches were bricked up, the choir stalls removed to create more space, and some of the pews recovered from the Nave were repaired and installed to provide seating. The shattered windows were reglazed with clear glass and the organ was dismantled and removed. The whole process took 9 months and cost £1,300".

The Coggeshall Museum website has a very good description of the works which were undertaken to bring the church back to its former splendour, and that which we see today, along with many contemporary photographs. In one of the photographs looking east towards the chancel, the orgain is just visible between the columns of the south arcade.

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Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 27 December 1895, p6

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