Stained Glass of Percy Bacon Limited

Crewkerne, St Bartholomew

Somerset

St Bartholomew's is a triumph of Perpendicular architecture. It is large, imposing, cruciform, with a crossing tower. Many of the windows are identical giving a feel of symmetry and harmony to the building. The Percy Bacon windows in the church are fairly late in the output of the firm. The first in the north aisle (see page 2), a memorial to Miss Frances Sparks, was conceived of in 1926, but not executed until 1928.¹ The other three were installed later in the same year, and seem to have been commissioned together. All the windows are of four lights with tracery, and in all physical respects identical. Percy Bacon used this symmetry to good effect, creating four windows which, although differing in the figurative scenes, are, in all other respect, identical; that is, in the canopy work, architectonic devices and tracery lights. This harmony would have pleased Percy Bacon. Writing in 1925 in a piece for the Journal of Stained Glass printed by the British Society of Master Glass Painters (of which he was a founder member), Bacon describes the 15th century Jesse Window at St Margaret's, Margaretting, Essex, in glowing terms, and it is clear that windows of this style informed his own art from an early date:²

Even as late as 1928 after nearly forty years since the firm's inception, and although the firm was just a few short years from closing, this quest for harmony was still front and centre of Percy Bacon's mind.

Posted 09 February 2025.

This is the only example of a Percy Bacon window depicting the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. In the centre left light Jesus faces Judas while his disciples look on somewhat impassively from behind. In the centre right light the un-haloed Judas confronts Jesus, while behind him Jewish priests and Roman soldiers look on ready to make the arrest. There is an expression on sadness in Judas's eyes, as if he is apologising to Jesus for his heinous betrayal. The scene is set within Percy Bacon's trademark elaborate niches, two of which are surmounted with angels. The tracery lights are simple, and uniform, with leaf and flower motifs, and two angelic faces looking down from the top. The inscription reads simply:

This window, and its counterpart on the south side of the chancel was given by a Miss Hussey of The Abbey.³

The window is signed.

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Posted 09 February 2025.

Although the story this window represents is different from its counterpart in the north of the chancel, it is, in all other respects identical.

The inscription, reflecting that of its counterpart in the north of the chancel reads simply:

This window, and its counterpart on the north side of the chancel was given by a Miss Hussey of The Abbey.⁴

The window is unsigned.

 

 

 

 

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1. Western Morning News, 10th August 1926, p4, reported that relatives and friend of the late Miss Sparks had decided to place a stained glass window in her memory at St Bartholomew's. However, the unveiling ceremony would not take place until February 1928 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Saturday 04 February 1928, p5).
2. Bacon, Percy C. H. 15th Century Jesse Window at St Margaret's, Margaretting: Journal of Stained Glass Vol 1; No.3; 1925:
3. Western Morning News, 30th May 1928, p3.
4. Ibid.