He commissioned Monnington to paint the 112 x 28 ft ceiling in 1956. 

Monnington’s assistants Scott Medd and W.B. (Peter) Lowe took 11 months to execute the designs. Lowe recalls: ‘Tom maintained that it was difficult to draw angels in the twentieth-century, and was comforted by the enduring qualities of geometry and light.

The design, based on simple geometry, was visualised as over-lapping webs of transparent light extending into and partly veiling the mysteries of space’. ‘The ceilings at Bristol and Exeter have matured well – unlike the earlier St Stephens Hall – and can safely be hailed as twentiethcentury masterpieces, and the studies for them, prepared with the precision and patience of a master, appear today both strong and vital.’ (Peyton Skipwith, Thomas Monnington, published by Paul Liss in association with The Fine Art Society, 1997, p.9.)