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Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Bristol, St George, St George the Martyr (lost works)
Bristol

Note: This church which no longer exists, is not to be confused with St George's at Brandon Hill in the centre of Bristol, which is now a concert and music venue.

St George's Church, early 19th century.

Posted 18 September 2023.

In about 1750 Eman Bowen presented a map of SomersetEman Bowen's Map of Somerset c1750. "An improved map of the county of Somerset : divided into it's hundreds: laid down & collected from the best materials, and illustrated with various additional improvements; with historical extracts relative to its natural produce, trade, manufactures &c".
A zoomable map can be found on the University of Bern's website.

Public Domain.
to John Poulett, 2nd Earl Poulett, who was then Lord-Lieutenant of the county. At the time Bristol was a sizeable town of 50,000 or so souls, but what is strikingly revealed on the map is how small it actually was. The areas south of the Avon and to the east in Gloucestershire were largely undeveloped, and unpopulated. The map also presaged something of what was to come. Near the village of Bedminster a small note provides a clue:

"Coal pitts. The country around Bristleton abounds with the same sort of coal as that in Newcastle".

The first coal was mined in Kingswood to the east of Bristol, and then at Bedminster to its south. In both areas collieries sprang up along with the housing catering for the influx of workers from the countryside.1 Serving the people's spiritual health was the church of St Philip & St Jacob in the centre of town whose parish extended for several miles to the east. It was clear that new parishes were needed and as a result the Parish of St George was created in the mid 18th century. A large plot of land off Summerhill Road was given by a local politician, Thomas Chester, a site large enough for a substantial church and vicarage. The foundation stone was laid in March 1752.2 The early church of St George The original St George's Church, built in 1756.
It was replaced by a much larger church in 1846.

was plain, English Baroque in style, and from the look of the 1821 print, a little utilitarian.

North Aisle 4; He Shall Feed His Flock, and a young Christ teaching in the temple; 1903, dedicated 1925.

John Hicks' plan of St George's Church, 1843.

In 1843 the architect John Hicks of Bristol & Dorchester3 was commissioned to carry out repairs on the 18th century church, though it appears to have been rebuilt instead, as the plan opposite, and the report in The Builder of 1846 seems to bear out.4 5 Other works of John Hicks include Holy Rood Church, Combe Keynes, St Andrew's, Montpelier, Bristol, and St John the Evangelist, Clifton, Bristol. Hicks would later apprentice the young Thomas Hardy to his practice in Dorchester before he embarked upon his writing career.

Hicks's new church was destroyed by fire on 22nd December 1878. Works to rebuild the church was commenced almost immediately with Philip E Masey of the firm Norton and Masey, Architects, London, who had formerly been connected with the parish as apprentice to John Hicks, and who offered to present a design without remuneration. Masey seems to have worked at lightning speed, because his plans were presented to a vestry meeting and the parishioners on 23rd January 1879, and were duly approved.6 The Bristol Mercury article outlined Masey's proposal:

"I beg to make the following recommendations: That the nave arcade, which is seriously dilapidated, and clerestory be taken down and rebuilt, the same windows being used again. That the upper stage of the tower be taken down and rebuilt, and as it is contemplated to have a peal of bells, with the four old windows I should couple other four to give freer egress to the sound. As ready access is required to the ringing loft, the bell stage, and top of the tower, it is needed to have a staircase turret, which I propose adding at the north-west corner. From the space necessarily taken up by the organ and extension of the vestry is absolutely needed. I propose extending the walls to have a free area inside of 17ft by 16ft., and to construct a heating chamber below. As I hear the west gallery is not needed, the best thing I can advise with respect to the tower is to open down the archway and to make a baptistry. Two floors require to be put in the upper part of the tower, one for the ringers and one for the bells. To the spare pinnacle from the tower, three only being required there, I propose adding another, and placing them at the east end of the chancel. In rebuilding the clerestory wall I should add slight buttresses, improving the appearance and strengthening the wall thereby. I recommend that the whole church be paved with tiles and be seated with chairs. All roofs will, of course, be required to be new. The new one, I should propose, would not be very dissimilar to the last. If funds permit, I should hope, in the windows and walls to have a moderate amount of quiet ornamentation, texts, and scenes from Scripture - appropriate adornment of the House of God, and giving grace and dignity."

Perhaps Masey's speed is not that surprising, as he would undoubtedly have had the advantage of being in possession of the original plans, and the rebuilt church was reported to have been based upon Hicks's foundations, and followed, "as faithfully as possible" the general lines of the earlier structure while adding improvements.7 Much of the original fabric of the walls had survived the fire and these were reused, along with materials which were able to be salvaged. Works therefore progressed apace, with the Mayor of Bristol laying a foundation stone near the west end on 16th April 1879. The church, despite a delay caused by a building workers' strike, was completed in 1880 and reopened by the Bishop of Gloucester on 8th May.8

In 1976 the church was declared structurally unsafe and demolished. In fact, it was so dangerous that the demolition could not be tackled by hand and machines in the traditional manner, but had to be carried out with explosives.9

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The Percy Bacon Stained Glass in St George's: 1904.

The only Percy Bacon and Brothers window at St George's confirmed from contemporary reports was installed in 1904. The Builder article described it thus:

"STAINED GLASS AND DECORATION.
Window, St. George’s Church, Bristol.— A large stained-glass east window has just been placed in the Church of St. George, Bristol, containing five lights and tracery. The centre light depicts the Crucifixion, the other four illustrating the Baptism of Our Lord, St. John, the Virgin, and The Supper at Emmaus. All the subjects are crowned in canopy work, angels with outspread wings appearing in the tracery, and at the bottom of the two outside lights. The work has been executed in the studio of Messrs. Percy Bacon & Brothers, of London".10

A photograph Photograph of the interior of St George looking east.

on The Church Crawler website, possibly taken in the 1970s shows the window in situ. The whereabouts of the glass is unknown.


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

  1. Coal mining in Bristol. Bristol Museum.
  2. See Church Crawler website for more information and photos.
  3. John Hicks biography at Nineteenth Century Bristol Architects website.
  4. See Church Crawler website.
  5. The Builder, Vol 4, 1846. p297.
  6. Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, 17th April 1879, p3.
  7. Bristol Mercury 06 May 1880, p3. Detailed description of the rebuilt church.
  8. Ibid.
  9. See Church Crawler website for photos of the demolition.
  10. The Builder Vol 87 18 November 1904, p742.

Location Map:

NGR: ST 62449 73612

Sat Nav Post Code: BS5 8JL

Map of 1918 showing the location of St George's Church within a large plot on Summerhill Road. The site is now occupied by St George's House, a development of flats.
Map reproduced with permission form the National Library of Scotland, CC-BY (NLS) licence.

All text and photos © Alan Spencer, except where otherwise stated; All Rights Reserved