Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

St Michael and All Angels Church, Bude Haven, Cornwall. View from the south east.

NSt Michael and All Angels Church, Bude Haven, Cornwall. View from the north.

St Michael and Alll Angels Church, Bude Haven. View from the south east.

Posted 06 February 2025.

In the 1830s, Bude was already described as a "thriving watering hole",¹ and its population was expanding to serve the many people who holidayed there. In making provision for the spiritual needs of the expanding population (and visitors), it was necessary to build a chapel of ease for the church at the neighbouring village of Stratton, whose parish encompassed Bude at the time. The result was an unremarkable church, whose "architecture does not command admiration",² designed by the Plymouth architect, George Wightwick in 1834/5 at the sole expense of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet, a local landowner, miner and philanthropist. Acland also donated the land on which St Michael's stands. George Wightwick was an admirer of Pugin, and a supporter of the Early English style of architecture, and St Michael's is testament to that. The original design was for a simple aisless nave, short chancel, north porch, and a south vestry corresponding with the porch. At the western roof apex, a double bell-cote was planned. The chancel was rather shorter than the later strictures of the Cambridge Camden Society allowed; that it be no less than a third the length of the nave, but the general style, particularly the harmony, and symmetry of the plan, and the use of narrow lancets throughout would certainly have pleased the ecclesiologists running that particular body. However, the short chancel, although bringing the altar, "Closer to the people", meant that the choir was relegated, rather unusually at the western end of the church. Click on the images below of Wightwick's design to enlarge.³

St Michael and All Angels Church, Bude Haven, Cornwall. Chapel plan by George Wightwick, 1935.

St Michael and All Angels Church, Bude Haven, Cornwall. South elevation.

St Michael and All Angels Church, Bude Haven, Cornwall. East elevation. The original 5-light window was replaced with 3-lights when the chancel was enlarged and the transepts added in 1877/8.

The stone to build the church, a dressed yellow porphyry, came from Acland's quarry at Trerice-Newlyn.⁴ The rather oversized vestry grafted onto the south of the chancel (is it larger in floor area than the chancel itself?) was added in 1896.

East window, 1901.

East window, 1901: Top left light: St John and Blessed Virgin Mary.

East window, 1901: Top centre light: Christ in Majesty.

East window, 1901: Top centre light detail.

East window, 1901: Top right light: St Peter & St Paul.

East window, 1901: Lower left light: St Polycarp & St Jerome.

East window, 1901: Archangels Gabriel & Michael.

East window, 1901: Lower right light: St Augustine & St Athanasius.

East window, 1901: Detail of the top right light.

East window, 1901: Detail of the top left light.

East Window, 1901.

Uploaded 06 February 2025..

The east window at St Micahel's consists of three tall, wide lancets which replaced the original five when the chancel was enlarged in 1877/8. It would be more than twenty years before the lights were filled with stained glass. These is a classic Percy Bacon design on the theme of The Church Triumphant; Christ in majesty surrounded by Fathers of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John, and archangels. The dedication was reported as;

Top Lights:
St John | BVM, Christ in Majesty, St Peter | St Paul

Bottom Lights:
St Polycarp | St Jerome, Archangels Gabriel & Michael, St Augustine | St Athanasius

It is uncertain whether the window is signed as the base is obscured by the reredos.

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1. Wightwick, G. A few Observations on the reviving Taste for Pointed Architecture, with an illustrated Description of a Chapel just erected at Bude Haven, under the Direction of the Author. The Architectural Magazine and Journal of Improvement in Architecture, Building, and Furnishing and in the Various Arts and Trades Connected Therewith 1835-08: Vol 2 Iss 18. p345.
2. Western Morning News - Saturday 01 February 1896, p6. Comment by correspondent reporting on a new dedication of the church.
3. The designs were included in the above article by George Wightwick..
4. Historic England entry for St Michael & All Angels, Bude..