Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Scremerston, St Peter.

Northumberland

Posted 13 March 2023. Updated 21 December 2025..

There is a single window by Percy Bacon & Brothers in St Peter's, a narrow lancet in the north west corner of the nave. In typical early Bacon style, the main character, St John the Baptist stands within an elaborate niche, at the top of which two kneeling angels hold a shield with an Agnus Dei. In the predella is a scene depicting the Baptism of Christ. The window is undated but the presence of the Three Bees Rebus suggests it was installed prior to 1896 when the Bacon studios switched to using the Bacon Coat of arms, and possibly as early as 1894 (see below). The tablet below the window which is also likely to have been made by the Bacon Studio reads:

There were likely two more windows in St Peter's by the Bacon Studio, but these are no longer extant, most probably destroyed by a German bomb dropped during February 1942 which blew out eight windows on the south side.¹ A catalogue entry at the Northumberland Archive with a watercolour suggests the windows depicted the BVM and child, and Christ the Consoler.² In the south of the nave is another dedication tablet engraved in the same style, and with the same lettering as the one mentioned above which commemorates Thomas Johnson who died in 1894. It is possible this is the same Thomas Johnson who bequeathed the St John window, and the tablet indicative of the location of the lost windows. This would also date the illustrated window. The Northumberland Archive entry is dated 24 March 1911. However, it is unclear what this date relates to.

            

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1. Report on the replacement of eight windows on the south side of the church which were destroyed by a bomb in 1942. Illustrated Berwick Journal - Thursday 25 November 1954, p5. A fuller report on the damage caused by the bombing raid: Illustrated Berwick Journal - Thursday 16 July 1953, p1.
2. Northumberland Archive reference No. DN/E/8/2/2/397.