Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers
St Peter's was designed by the architect George Haldon Fellowes Prynne and built between 1891 and 1893.1 It was generously gifted to the town by the Hon. Mark Rolle, a nephew of the 1st Baron Rolle who was responsible for Holy Trinity, Exmouth. Between 1905 and 1907 Mark Rolle would again commission Fellowes-Prynne to completely remodel Holy Trinity. For a small village at the time, St Peter's is on a grand scale, more in keeping with one designed for a sizeable town and like a number of other churches designed by Prynne, the cost of the building works outstripped the available funds, so the tower was never built. Prynne's designs for St Wilfrid, Bognor Regis, Sussex, and St Marks, Woodcote suffered the same fate, and he was not alone in such lofty ambitions. Frederick Preedy's design for St Edmund's, Hunstanton, lacks a tower for the same reason. St Peter's was described as ‘a stately and beautiful building, worthy to rank among the finest modern churches in the country’, with an ‘extremely dignified’ interior and the magnificence of the ‘richly vested altar...contributing to the impressive appearance of this fine interior’.2
It seems likely that a great deal of the original glass and decoration was executed by Percy Bacon and Brothers (as was the case at nearby Holy Trinity, Exmouth) and installed over a considerable period of time as parishioners made donations for memorials. These included a three light south aisle window depicting the type and anti-type of the institution of the blessed sacrement (1900),3 the west window (1902),4 two windows in the north aisle (Ss James and Barnabas - 1903 and Ss Alban, George & St Edward- 1906),5 a 2-light south aisle window (1912),6 the chancel south lancet windows (date uncertain), and the mosaic panels in the chancel (1907-1913). Another three light window of an unknown subject whose unveiling ceremony was reported in September 1902 by the Exeter & Plymouth Gazette was also made by Percy Bacon and Bros. Many of the windows are recorded in the local press as having been designed by G H F Prynne, who continued to have a good working relationship with the church over many years, and well after the completion of the original scheme, albeit minus the tower and spire. Further details of the lost windows are recorded below.
All of the windows in the church with the exception of those high up in the wall of the south chancel were destroyed by enemy bombing on 17th April 1942. The south chancel windows were badly damaged but survived, and were restored with the original Bacon/Prynne designs by Wippell and Co who were engaged along with artists George Copper Abbs and Roy Coomber to reglaze the entire church. This was carried out over a number of years between 1951 and 1954.8 The themes of the windows are: L: BVM and Child, Ctr: St Anne teaching the BVM to read, and R: The Lamb of God.
Most, if not all the original opus sectile panels are still in situ, though heavily restored following the damage caused by the bombing. These mosaics are installed high on the north and south walls of the chancel, three and six respectively, framed by plain stone columns and horizontal moldings. Although conceived as a general scheme of decoration, the panels, like the windows were installed piecemeal over a number of years as new donors commemorated those departed.9 Three are presented here which are on the south side: Nativity, Jesus with the teachers in the temple, and Jesus preaching to the pharisees.
Posted 28 January 2023.
In 1896 the Royal Academy Exhibition included a, "design for the east window, Budleigh Salterton Church by Percy Bacon & Brothers".11 It is likely that this design had already been executed as part of the original scheme for church decoration. Although the original east window was destroyed by the bombing of 1942, thankfully, a few old prints and postcards exist to give an idea of the original church. The Builder printed a monochrome photo-lithograph of the east window in its 17th December 1910 edition (right). It is rather dark, but does give some idea of the detail the window incorporated. A postcard sent in August 1905 (below) shows the unpewed interior. The window is of five lights with tracery. The tracery is beautifully arranged to create a rose with seven quatrefoil rings arranged around a cinqfoil ring at its centre. Each of the seven rings contained a seated angel holding a scroll. The images to hand are unfortunately not of sufficient resolution to define the words on the scrolls. At the centre was the image of Christ in Majesty. The modern glass is by George Copper Abbs and made by Wippell & Co, installed in the early 1950s.
As mentioned above, it seems likely that a great deal of the original glass and decoration was executed by Percy Bacon and Brothers under the direction, or to the designs of George Fellowes-Prynne. These were installed over a number of years as parishioners made donations for memorials. Listed below are works of Percy Bacon & Brothers which can be identified by reports in various publications.
South Aisle; 1900 | Western Times, Friday 7th December 1900, p6. |
West Windows; 1902 | Western Times, Monday 9th June 1902, p5. |
North Aisle; 1903 | Western Times - Wednesday 29 April 1903, p5. |
North Aisle; 1906 | Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Tuesday 16 January 1906 p5. |
South Aisle; 1912 | Western Times - Saturday 10 February 1912, p2. |
South Porch; 1912 | Western Times - Saturday 10 February 1912, p2 (continued from above). |
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