Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

All Saints Childwall from the south. From an undated drawing by J. Hindley in the Binns Collection, Liverpool Public Library. PD Image.

All Saints Childwall from the south. From an undated drawing by J. Hindley in the Binns Collection, Liverpool Public Library. PD Image.

All Saints Childwall today. Photo taken 03 August 2026.

All Saints, Childwall 1810. From an undated drawing by J. Hindley in the Binns Collection, Liverpool Public Library. PD Image.

Posted 07 August 2026.

All Saints is the only surviving medieval church in the Metropolitan Borough of Liverpool.¹ As is well documented in Ronald Stuart-Browne’s Notes on Childwall, the history of All Saints paints a picture of considerable change over the centuries.² The most comprehensive of those changes occurred in 1834 when the church was enlarged with the addition of another north aisle creating an unusual “double aisle” which incorporated an earlier north transept (the Plumbe Chapel). The north gallery at the western end of the nave was enlarged, and extended to the new north wall. In 1905 the north side was completely rebuilt, the northern side of the west gallery removed, and a clearstory added to both sides of the nave. That clearstory contains eight two light windows – four on each side - which were filled with stained glass by Percy Bacon & Brothers as part of the rebuilding scheme. These windows depict angels and saints, and each is presented in memory of various people whose names are carved in the sills. The studio also executed a window in the new north aisle in 1906, and this was also likely commissioned as part of the rebuild. Percy Bacon would return to Childwall in 1911 to install two other windows in the north aisle, and again in circa 1917 to execute a war memorial window in the west wall.

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The nave clearstory was built during the major rebuild of All Saints by J. F. Doyle in 1905.³ Eight windows were incorporated - four to each side - all of two lights which depict the standing figures of saints and their symbols, virtues, or angels playing instruments or (in the case of ClS3) holding a sacred heart and scales of justice. All the figures are set in square quarries with oak leaf motifs rendered in yellow stain. Rather unusually (or perhaps uniquely) each window is dedicated by an inscription carved into their sills.

The dedications on the window sills read as follows:

SCL1: This Window was restored in memory of Ida E. B. Earle who died 1903.
SCL2: This Window was restored in memory of Elizabeth wife of J. Francis Doyle 1902.
SCL3: In Memory of Mary Ellen Gladstone, died Sept. i7th, 1895.
SCL4: In Memory of Joseph B. Morgan, died 1900.

The dedications on the window sills read as follows:

NCL4: In Memory of Irene Sinclair Coghill, died 1904.
NCL3: In Memory of George Winter Warr, vicar of Childwall, 1870-1895.
NCL2: In Memory of Samuel Robert Graves, M.P., died Jan. 18, 1873, also Elizabeth Ann Graves, died Dec. 11, 1894.
NCL1: In Memory of Alexander and Jane Hewit Rodger.

1. Historic England. Official List Entry.
2. Stuart-Browne, R, F.S.A. Notes on Childwall in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire for the year 1913. Vol 65. p47. The article can be downloaded as a pdf from the society's website here.
3. Ibid, p84.