Stained Glass of Percy Bacon; Dunchurch, Warwickshire.

Stained Glass of Percy Bacon

Dunchurch, St Peter's

Warwickshire

St Peter's is tucked away amongst a huddle of thatched and timber framed cottages and a large georgian house in the centre of the village. It is an exuberant church of red and grey sandstone with wide north and south aisles and a heavy ambitious tower. The church is well endowed with stained glass from Shrigley and Hunt (south aisle), Herbert Bryans (east and west - Pevsner makes the common mistake of attributing the east window to Kempe¹), and Percy Bacon (north aisle). Both the S&H and Bacon widows are war memorials to individuals or more generally those who died fighting in the Boer War or First World War.

The years during and particularly following the First World War were fruitful times for Percy Bacon. A great many windows installed between 1916 and 1920 are war memorials whose themes of Victory, Valour and Courage varied little over the years. At Dunchurch, Bacon has chosen representations of Victory and Valour in one window (NA1) and "War and Peace" in the other (NA2). Cartoons were often recycled and used multiple times for these memorial windows, as here, where Victory is depicted as a medieval armoured knight, sword or lance in his left hand and a laurel leaf crown held aloft in his right. Invariably the face is of a young man with golden hair or a golden laurel leaf crown. Similarly Valour with sword in hand and a shield emblazoned with the cross of St George was often copied. The images conjure a vision of an althogether different age from that which the young men commemorated had lived-and died-in; of chivalry and honour. Although minor variations inevitably crept in or developed over the years, in the case of Dunchurch the depictions of Valour and Victory, and War and Peace are identical to those in the large west window of Holy Trinity Church in nearby Leamington Spa, installed in December of 1919. The window in Holy Trinity is of five lights which allowed Bacon to expand the theme to also include Devastation, St Michael (representing defeat over the enemy), and Plenty, a sequence which illustrates the progress of the conflict. Similar designs were used at Narberth (Pembrokeshire), Carmarthen (Carmarthenshire), Sandy (Bedfordshire), and Hornesa (Yorkshire).

NA2: War and Peace; c1919/20.

NA2: Tracery detail; Emblem of the Royal Flying Corps.

NA2: Tracery detail; Emblem of the Army.

NA2: Tracery detail; Emblem of the Royal Navy.

NA2: War c1919/20.

NA2: Peace c1919/20.

NA2: War and Peace. In the tracery are emblems of
the three armed forces; land, sea and air.

Dunchurch St Peter's: Valour & Victory. Percy Bacon c1919/20.

NA1: Valour.

NA1: Victory.

NA1: Valour.

NA1: Victory.

NA1: Valour and Victory

The War and Peace window is dedicated to the memory of those men of Dunchurch who died in the Great War 1914-18. The Valour and Victory window is dedicated to John Houldsworth (RN) who died on active duty in February 1919 aged 20 years. Both windows were installed and dedicated in October 1920.²

References: Use your browser's Back button to return to text.

The Buildings of England, Warwickshire: Pevsner N & Wedgwood A; Penguin Books 1966.
Coventry Herald, Saturday 16 October 1920, p3. Report on the dedication ceremony.

Location Map:

NGR: SP 48616 71262
Sat Nav Post Code: CV22 6NU