Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

St Hilda's Church, Lucker.

St Hilda's, Lucker, Northumberland.

Posted 14 March 2023.

The 1996 edition of Pevsner's guide to Northumberland is terse with it's description of St Hilda's. It merely states that it is late 18th century, built in 1874 by George Reavell Snr, in a Norman style with apse.¹ The Historic England official list entry is not much more effusive.² Reavell did a good job in making it seem like a 12th century edifice, with it's magnificent chancel arch, apse, funky carved faces in the apse corbel table and many splayed, round-headed windows.³ Despite St Hilda's being a pretty little church, sitting on the high ground overlooking the Waren Burn, scant information has so far been unearthed about its history. Perhaps the reason Pevsner is so lacking.

All of the stained glass in the church, apart from an early one by Lavers, Westlake & Co. are by Percy Bacon & Brothers. All but one are unsigned, and most of the dedications are to people whose passing considerably predated the setting up of Bacon's company. However, the style is unmistakably that of the firm. All are dedicated to members of the Watson/Armstrong/FitzPatrick families, and were very likely installed as a single scheme in the early 1900s. It was Sir William Henry Watson's grandson, William Watson Armstrong (d. 1941), who inherited the estate (and title) of his great uncle William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, who set up the Armstrong-Whitworth company. Baron Armstrong died in 1900, and the west window is dedicated to his memory and that of his wife (Margaret, nee Ramshaw) who pre-decesed him.

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Posted 14 March 2023.

The three individual round-headed lancets in the east of the apse form a unified crucifixion scene. Only the north east window (BVM) is signed.

Apse NE: BVM

Apse NE: BVM

The rather scrappy signature.

Apse Centre: Crucifixion

Apse E: Crucifixion

Apse SE: St John the Evangelist.

Apse SE: St John

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SC1: St Hilda, founder of Whitby Abbey.

SC2: St Hilda.

SC1: St Aidan, Bishop of Lindesfarne.

SC1: St Aidan.

Posted 05 April 2023.

There are two lancets on the south side of the chancel which depict northern saints, Aidan of Lindisfarne (SC1) and Hilda, founder of Whitby Abbey (SC2). Neither is dated and both are dedicated to individuals who died considerably earlier than the formation of Percy Bacon's firm in 1892. Aidan is dressed as Bishop of Lindisfarne and holds a book on which sits his symbol, a diminutive white hart. At nearby Bamburgh, the death of Aidan is remembered in another Bacon Studios window next to his supposed resting place in the chancel. The Aidan window is dedicated to the memory of the honourable Sir William Henry Watson, Baron of the Exchequer. He died in 1860. St Hilda is crowned, and holds a bible in her left hand and crozier in her right. The window is dedicated to William Watson's first wife, Anne, daughter of William Armstrong of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and sister of Lord Armstrong who founded the Armstrong-Whitworth engineering company.

Neither window is signed, and so far no corroboration has been found for this project. However, attribution to the Bacon Studio is fairly certain.

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1. Pevsner, N., Grundy, J. & Ryder, P. The Buildings of England, Northumberland, 1992, p386.
2. Historic England website: Entry for Lucker Church of St Hilda.
3. See Northumberland Archive for Reavell's plans of the new church. Doc ref: DN/E/8/2/1/82. One of the documents in the archive is a map showing the location of the old church (now demolished) to the north east of the one built by George Reavell.