Parish Chancel-screens
Simple—as the beginnings of all artistic work are—are the earliest chancel-screens of this country, and the progress from simple forms to the very rich and complex ones of the Perpendicular Period is as evident in wooden screen-work as it is in the history of tracery in stone. Probably the earliest wooden screen-work in the country exists in the Church of St. Nicholas, Compton, Surrey. The eastern end of this church, of Late Norman date, is in two storeys, the lower one forming the sanctuary, vaulted, and opening to the west with a rich Late Norman semicircular arch. Railing off the upper floor above this arch is a screen, consisting of a series of semicircular arches springing from cylindrical or octagonal shafts, with moulded bases and caps, almost certainly of twelfth-century date, and thus coëval with the Late Norman or Transitional portions of the church. In the exquisite little chapel at Kirkstead is the earliest wooden screen-work in the county (and, saving Compton, in the country), which has probably been the upper portion of a choir-screen, in the back of two pews. It is composed altogether of thirteen bays, divided equally between the seats. Each bay consists of a lancet-headed trefoil supported by octagonal pillars with moulded capitals and bases. The total height of the work is 2 feet 9 inches, and it consists of oak throughout. This screen was considered by the late Bishop of Nottingham to be coëval with the chapel itself—i.e. to have been made about the first quarter of the thirteenth century. In Rochester Cathedral is (or was) some screen-work of the same date and character. In Thurcaston Church, Leicestershire, is a screen consisting of plain panel-work in the lower part, and of a series of open arches above, trefoiled in the heads, and springing from slender cylindrical shafts, with moulded bases and caps, being almost identical (save in having cylindrical pillars) with the example from Kirkstead. In Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire, is a very similar screen, only with circular annulated pillars; this is considered to be forty or fifty years later in date—i.e. about 1260, about the same date as the screen at St. Andrew’s, Chinnor, in the same county.
Transcriber’s Note: this image is clickable for a larger version.
Rood-Screen and Base of Loft, Sleaford Church (St. Denis’).
The screens of Decorated and Perpendicular date may be taken together in general description, more especially as the essential feature of Lincolnshire screens—an ogee arch—appears in both and in nearly every instance.
Firstly, then, a beam runs transversely and horizontally across from pillar to pillar of the chancel arch, or in front thereof, sometimes supported by corbels at either end, as has been the case at Heckington and Wellingore. This may or may not be the rood-beam (i.e. the beam on which the rood stood). In some cases the rood-beam was quite separate from and independent of the screen, as at Claypole, where there are corbels for it on each side of and high up on the chancel arch; at Legbourne, where the same arrangement is made, and in the Morning Chapel, Lincoln Minster. At Blyton the rood-beam remains above the chancel arch; above the upper side of the beam the wall is recessed, probably to allow of a boarded and panelled background to the rood and the other two figures. Further support to this beam (of the screen) is afforded by a number of stout uprights from the floor (where is sometimes a horizontal wooden or a stone base) to the rood-beam, dividing the screen into bays, varying in number with the size of the screen, whereof the middle one is generally the largest, though at Frampton, Stixwould, Mumby, Middle Rasen, Lusby, and Miningsby it is of the same size as the others.
The middle bay is as 13 to 11, for example, at Cotes, as 2 to 1 at East Kirkby, as nearly 5 to 4 at Moulton, as 3½ to 2 at Bratoft, and as 3 to 2 at Thorpe St. Peter’s. These uprights are often formed into small pillars in the front, and occasionally on the eastward aspect also, or, in more Perpendicular work, they are fashioned as slender buttresses, Cotes and Sleaford giving examples of the former, while East Kirkby does so of the latter method. From these uprights, at about two-thirds of their height, spring more or less pointed arches, with their apices at the beam or just below it. Generally, the lower third of the screen is composed of solid panelling, sunk and with foliated and traceried heads; though at Barrow-on-Humber, at Spalding, and at Alford the panels are perforated, probably this is not original. Along the upper border of these panels often runs a scroll or vignette of open work, as at Winthorpe and at East Kirkby, and of Tudor flowers at Croft, while it is embattled at Westborough and Yarburgh.
From the middle of the transom (if it may be so termed), which runs along from upright to upright, below the open portion of the screen, in a number of Lincolnshire examples, arises a mullion up to the spring of the arch, and there divides into two ogee arches, as at Theddlethorpe, Saltfleetby (All Saints’), Mumby, Ulceby (St. Nicholas), and Marsh Chapel. In some of these cases the mullion divides up into two pointed arches above the ogees, and at Middle Rasen, where there are three ogees and two mullions in each bay, the arches intersect and are carried through the spandrils, which are now open (probably an effect of restoration). In other instances the mullion divides up into two almost semicircular arches, which form the lower and outer portion of a large ogee, as at Cotes, Denton, Stixwould, Scrivelsby, Miningsby, Swineshead, Scotter, and Folkingham. At St. Peter’s, Barton, there are two of these ogees in each bay. At Swineshead, Leverton, and Friskney, these arches beneath the ogees are more pointed in character. At Miningsby, on the west front of the mullions, are slender round pillars rising from the transom up to the point of the ogee, and there finishing in tiny crocketed pinnacles, capped by a finial. At Claypole and Althorpe the arrangement is much the same as at Cotes, but the mullions are absent; whether this is original or not seems uncertain. There are no traces of them on the transom of either screen. At Cotes and elsewhere the quatrefoil space between the heads of the arches and the upper part of the ogee is filled by a shield. Another form, which seems like a development of the Claypole scheme (although it almost certainly is much earlier in date), has no mullions, and no inner halves of the arches; from their outer halves springs an ogee, making an outline which has been called—not inaptly—the fleur-de-lis form. An excellent example of this is given by the East Kirkby screen.
Where there is no central mullion, the ogee simply springs from the uprights and terminates in a finial at the rood-beam, as at Sleaford, Ewerby, Saxilby, Moulton, Winthorpe, Croft, and Fishtoft, and in thirteen other instances. The same arrangement is found at Spalding, but the ogee is very depressed, and so the finial ends much lower than in the screens just mentioned. At Bratoft there is an almost semicircular arch beneath the ogee, freely cusped internally, somewhat the same as at Thorpe St. Peter’s, All Saints’, Benington (where the upper edge of the arch forming the base of the ogee is embattled), and Addlethorpe (tower arch screen). These ogees are profusely crocketed, generally, of course, owing to their date, with the square-shaped leaves which mark the Perpendicular Period, and they are also more or less elaborately cusped internally. Special notice should be taken of the crockets at Thorpe St. Peter’s and at Burgh (now across tower arch), which represents pelicans in various attitudes.
The middle bay partakes of the character of the lateral ones, though it is usually so different in width. Thus at Cotes it has a flattened wider ogee, with the descending mullion cut off; at Alford (where there are no mullions), a flattened wider ogee, with a depressed arch under it; at Miningsby (where all the bays are of the same width) the inner halves of the sub-arches disappear as well as the central mullion; at Denton, a flattened wider ogee; and at Swineshead, a larger and taller ogee. At Lusby the central bay ogee is identical with those of the sides; the same is true of Stixwould, with the absence of the descending mullion—also, in a different style, of Mumby; while at Theddlethorpe, Saltfleetby, and Moulton, this bay has a depressed arch with three ogees on it, the last named being also remarkable for having “a series of five shallow hoods or canopies groined in miniature underneath, to simulate vaulting.”[105] At Barton there are two ogees, at Middle Rasen three. At Sleaford and Ewerby there is the same kind of arch, with two ogees upon it, but in the centre the vaulting continues downward to a cap and shaft, which ends on the arch; also at Spalding, only without the ogees.
At Claypole and Althorpe the central shaft is carried down much below the spring of the ogees, and ends on a four-centred arch. East Kirkby has two ogees on an ogival arch beneath. At Saxilby the central feature takes the form of a round-headed arch in a square-headed bay with the spandrils filled with circles, surmounted by seven small bays, each containing a crocketed ogee terminating in a finial. At Barrow there is a pointed arch, with pierced spandrils. At Benniworth there is a large ogee with curious tracery over it (? modern), entirely different from the lateral bays. At Ewerby, already mentioned, this bay has on the inner side of each ogee a beautiful wheel; on the outer side a fine network of tracery. At Folkingham the centre arch is carved and crocketed with grapes and vine-leaf ornament. At Scrivelsby, between two ogees is a large wheel of tracery, with two smaller ones filling in the spaces on each side.
All screens probably had a door or doors, though but few of these are left in Lincolnshire. At Westborough the original doors exist; they are square-headed, with tracery above and panelling below, similar to that of the side bays. Cotes, Spalding, Theddlethorpe, East Kirkby, Moulton, Helpringham, Thorpe St. Peter’s, and Barton still retain their doors, but only the lower panels are left.
Also slender buttresses have been mentioned above, as being moulded out of the uprights. Occasionally there were to the front (western face) of these uprights, especially on each side of the central doorway, flying buttresses with crocketed attachments. Remains of these are still to be seen at East Kirkby, Moulton, Fishtoft, Thorpe St. Peter’s, Bratoft, Croft, Legbourne, Crowland, and Mumby. At Grimoldby, where the lower half of the screen exists, two buttresses project some way westward and are well panelled. The extreme form of these, where the upright part of the buttresses was fashioned into a candlestand, may be exemplified by Ranworth screen (Norfolk), where the buttresses, panelled as to their lower two-thirds, separate the central passage from an altar on either side.
The intervening spaces between the ogee and the confining arch will be filled in with delicate tracery, varying of course in style with the age and locality of each particular screen. Whatever the faults of Perpendicular work may be in stone, the repetition of similar forms, the richness of the detailed ornament, and the lightness of the tracery make Perpendicular wooden screens, more perhaps than any others, the best representatives of the Cancelli (lattice-work), and very valuable portions of the furniture of a church.
In some churches, as at Laughton-en-le-Morthen, there was a low stone screen, buttressed, which would carry a lighter screen of wood. Instances of a similar arrangement may be seen at Nantwich and Morton-by-Bourne, and there is a preparation for it at Wellingore and Boston.
If the 200 churches mentioned in Mr. E. Peacock’s English Church Furniture be taken as a fair sample of Lincolnshire churches, as they well may be, almost every one possessed a rood-loft, which may now be described.
Westwards generally (but eastwards only at Worstead) from the beam, which often forms a kind of breast summer to the gallery about to be described, would extend a platform of varying width (at Selattyn in Shropshire it is 10 feet wide, usually about 4 feet), supported by a coved cornice, ornamented by ribs which intersect sometimes in a very complicated pattern, as at Sleaford, and with—as vignette—a band of carving, such as vine-leaf and grape, along the front. On very many screens, which have lost their gallery, traces can be seen where the ribs and springers for its support have been attached. The eastern portion of the gallery remains at East Kirkby, starting from the top of the screen, and being coved independently thereof. From both sides—east and west (or only one west)—of this platform would rise up a panelled screen, which sometimes, as at Upper Sheringham, consisted of open work. This gallery—the rood-loft—would be approached by one or more staircases in the piers of the chancel arch or in the north or south walls of the aisles. There are two of these staircases at Boston, Sleaford, and Grantham, while Spalding, Heckington, and most of the other churches in the county have but one.
Rood-Screen and Loft, St. Edith’s Church, Cotes-by-Stow.
The only complete mediæval rood-loft in the county is in the little church of Cotes by Stow. It has been carefully repaired, with foliated and traceried panels, and a vignette of grapes and vine-leaves along the lower border. The central projection is interesting and original, and here is evidently not for the crucifix, as that would be fixed at the eastern side of the loft. A similar projection will be seen at Sleaford, and probably both were used for preaching. They are exactly reversed in position from those at Lincoln Minster and Tattershall, and from that mentioned in the contract for the rood-loft at Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge, in 1521, “wyth a pulpete into the mydds of ye quyer.”
There are several screens which yet retain the hang-over, making the floor of the rood-loft. The reason for this at Sleaford is given in Mr. Peacock’s book: “Itm̅—the rode lofte taken downe all save the florthe wc̅h remayneth standing wc̅h we cannot take doune for yt is a waie frome one house to another so yt̅ we have noe passadge but that waie to ytt”—which may mean from chapel to chapel, or from aisle roof to aisle roof.
A few varieties of screens, with or without lofts, may most conveniently be noticed here before dealing at greater length with the rood-loft and its accessories. Screens are met with which most certainly have had rood-lofts, the evidence of which is the existence of remains of the springers or ribs for the coved support of the loft on one or both sides of the screen, and the rough framework above, whence the rood-loft floor has been stripped. But no trace can be found in the church either of rood-loft staircase, doors thereto, or of corbels to support the rood-loft. Also the screen may not fit its place. Of course, in some instances, the rood-loft staircase may have been entirely concealed or taken away. But it is almost certain in other instances that the screen is not in its original church. Most probably an example of this is the Ewerby screen, which is too wide for the chancel, and has evident traces of having had a rood-loft. This screen has in all likelihood come from the neighbouring priory of Haverholme. Very likely the same applies to the wooden screen in the north aisle of Crowland Abbey; it does not fit (has been removed eastwards within this century), has evidence of having had a rood-loft, and there are no signs of anything of the kind in that part of the church. It may have been the rood-screen in the nave, or the very one mentioned, of the year 1413, below. And at Cadney, near Brigg, is a screen said to have come from Newstead on Ancholme.
In other churches, on the contrary, we may find abundant evidence in the shape of rood-loft staircase and doors, and corbels, for the former existence of a rood-loft. The screen, too, may seem quite to fill its position and not show any trace of having had a rood-loft on it, and this not merely from having had the coving neatly removed (as may possibly have been the case in some churches), but by the style altogether of the upper portion of the screen. There is no coving, and therefore no pointed arch over the ogee between each upright, forming consequently a square-headed aperture instead of a pointed one.
Rood-Screen, St. Mary’s Church, Winthorpe.
At Winthorpe, for example, there is no trace of a loft on the existing screen, while some four feet or so westwards are putlog holes and corbels for the front of the rood-loft, as well as a complete rood-loft staircase on the north side of the chancel. Grainsby, Friskney, and Leverton are instances of similar treatment. The explanation is that the rood-loft has been made on the same plan as that at Upper Sheringham in Norfolk. Here a screen of the square-headed kind described, and with good Perpendicular tracery, fills the chancel arch to about the height of ten feet. Four or five feet westwards of this screen extends the rood-loft, not supported apparently by the screen, but just touching it. Two uprights support the front of the loft, with the spandrils filled on the north side with a pelican, on the south with a dragon. The gallery, which has an elegant open traceried front, runs across in front of the chancel arch and is reached by a staircase in the north wall. Much the same arrangement has been at East Budleigh. A feature of minor interest in Sheringham is the diversity of tracery; thus in the rood-loft seven and a half bays have the same, while three more are quite different, and in the screen the number of differences is still more marked.
There are also some screens which show no trace on their westward face of a rood-loft, and yet have or have had one. Of these, Worstead may stand for an example.
Again, occasionally a screen is found, certainly old, certainly in its original position, and yet with no signs on it or in the church of any rood-loft at all. It is fair to suppose in these cases that there never has been a rood-loft, but that the screen itself has carried the rood. Such a screen was the one at Salmonby, now removed, and the existing elegant Perpendicular ones at Wickenby and Scrivelsby. At West Tarring and Broadwater (Sussex) the low screens bristle with spikes, probably contemporaneous, which show that there never was any upper tracery or loft. Also we can have a rood-loft alone, without a screen, as seems to have been the case at Avebury (Wilts). A superb example of this kind abroad still exists in the Church of St. Etienne du Mont, Paris, of sixteenth-century date, with two spiral staircases.
To return to the rood-loft staircases, which, and the doorways to them, are met with constantly, over one hundred instances being found in Lincolnshire alone. Usually, of course, they cut through more ancient work, as at Stow, where a Saxon pier has been cut through (the Saxon piers of the eastern tower arch are likewise cut and channelled to allow of the insertion of the beams of a rood-loft); at Normanton, where a Transitional arch has been cut into; at Frieston, where the third pier from the west of the Norman north arcade of the nave has been replaced by a square mass of stonework containing the rood-loft stairs, with a Perpendicular rebate for the parish rood-screen; or as at Whaplode, where the fine Norman chancel arch has been cut across for the rood-loft, to which a Tudor staircase gave access.
It will have appeared from the quotations already given that at Canterbury, Winchester, and Beverley there were rood-lofts (pulpita) as early as the eleventh century. At Peterborough Cathedral, too, we learn that there was a new rood-loft set up by Abbot Benedict before 1193. At Sibsey (St. Margaret’s) there is a Norman nave and aisle arcades, with lofty circular pillars, square abaci and scalloped cushioned capitals. The easternmost arch of the south arcade is narrower than the others, to admit of a turret staircase formerly giving access to the rood-loft, and its respond has some later detail than the others. The rood-loft doorway at Colsterworth is among the earliest known. It has an abacus on which the nail-head ornament exists. This was probably the original rood-loft entrance, which was subsequently altered when the Perpendicular chancel arch was erected, as this must have partly blocked up the entrance. The builders therefore destroyed the right side of the original doorway and made a side entrance. At East Shefford Church (Berks), in the north wall, are two Early English windows for lighting the rood-loft, the entrance to the staircase for which still remains. At St. Nicholas, Skirbeck, the nave is of Early English date, and in consequence of the rood-loft staircase, the north arcade has narrower bays than the southern. At Bratoft, the aisle arcade, of Decorated date, has the easternmost arch much narrower than any of the others to allow of the rood-loft staircase. The little staircase at Cotes is in the thickness of the south wall. The entrance doorway is moulded in wood, and near the top a tiny two-light window, cut in alabaster, lights the stair. At St. Lawrence, Sedgebrook, the rood-loft apparently was carried across the aisles, as was the case at Corby and Carlton Scroop (and at Grantham); and access to it was supplied by a newel staircase on the south side of the church in a turret, in which a sancte-bell formerly hung. This arrangement of a staircase turret leading on to the nave or aisle roof, and ending in a sancte-bell cot, was obviously convenient, and is not very infrequent. Probably this was the case at Grantham, where the octagonal turrets finish in a spirelet, at Leake, at Fishtoft, at Swineshead, at Langtoft, at Helpringham, Quadring, and at Tattershall, though in the last-named the turret-stair begins from the stone rood-loft. Leverington Church (Cambs) has a rood-loft turret crowned with a spirelet at the south-east angle of the nave, which forms a sancte-bell cot and still retains its bell. At Sleaford there are two rood-loft stairs in the north and south piers of the chancel arch, and running up with the northern one is a separate staircase leading on to the aisle roof. No rood-loft turrets, as far as I have been able to ascertain, date back previous to the thirteenth century. Curiously, at St. Antony in Kirrier, Cornwall, there is only an external doorway to the rood-loft staircase.
Another convenient position for the sancte-bell cot was at the apex of the eastern gable of the nave, and the earliest example of this form seems to be a Norman one at Bledington Church in Gloucestershire. In Tallington Church there still hangs a bell (probably original) in this position; and Seamer Church, near Scarborough, still possesses both bell and gable sancte-bell cot. At Welbourn is a pretty hanging bell cot corbelled out beneath an excellent gable cross. Tydd St. Mary’s is another instance of both features, while Gedney, Claypole, Winthorpe, Boston, Aslackby, Sibsey, and Spalding have the gable bell cot alone. Butterwick has a gable bell cot as well as a rood-loft turret (of good circular brickwork), as have also Benington and Wrangle. Holbeach has had two gable sancte-bell cots, the first dating from 1453; this was replaced at a remarkably late date—that of the Laudian revival, I suppose, in 1629. As well as the sancte-bells which have been already mentioned, at Aslackby is a small bell (unhung in the tower), dated 1611, which is thought to be the sanctus-bell. St. Mary’s, Sutterton, is a small bell of thirteenth-century date, inscribed in Lombardic lettering, “Symon de Hotfelde me fecit.” St. Peter and St. Paul, Algarkirk, has also probably a sancte-bell, as well as Bicker, Ingoldmells, East Halton, Sutterton, Hacconby, Great Hale, and North Witham.
To return to the rood-loft: on it (or above it) would stand the great rood, often with the ends of the cross finished with heads or emblems of the Four Evangelists. Occasionally the crucifix would be sustained partly by chains from the roof, as can be seen abroad—e.g. at Louvain—to this day. In the crown of the chancel arch of Boston Parish Church are the sockets for the two chains to support the rood, and at Billinghay a central mark for a hook. On either side of the rood would be an image of St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist.[106]
Not infrequently the whole of the chancel arch was boarded up, and the rood, with attendant figures, stood in front of this, or were painted on it. Just above and behind (i.e. eastwards of) the rood-loft at Cotes the chancel roof is shut off by oak boarding. On each side figures can be dimly discerned, that on the north having a nimbus, and scattered over the boarding are flowers with leaves, most probably meant for lilies. There is a large blank space in the middle, against which, no doubt, the crucifix was fastened. And it is interesting to note that at “Thorpe in parochie de Heythar” (Culverthorpe, near Haydor, probably), in April 1555, the churchwardens state: “Itm̅ we had noe Roode nor other Imageis but that were painted on the wall, and thei are defaced and put oute,” &c.[107] Besides the rood and the images of St. Mary and St. John, which are mentioned in almost every one of the 200 parishes in Mr. Peacock’s book as having been destroyed in 1566, often as “the Rode Marie and John with all other Imageis of papistrie,” there are specific references in several cases to other images and tabernacles on the rood-loft. Their fate seemed to be almost invariably to be burnt. Thus at “Asbye juxa Sleford—Imprimis o̅r Images of the Rood Mary and Jhon w̅th all other Images burned Ao̅ iijᵒ Elizabeth.” At Belton, in Axholme (after mentioning the rood Mary and John), “Itm̅ one Rood-loft with a tabernacle whearin Imageis stood;” at Folkingham, “The Images belonging to the same roode-loft as the Image called the roode Marie and John w̅th an other other (sic) Image called St. Andrewe (vppon the w̅ch the parish church of ffolkinghm̅ drewe his name).” At Corbie, besides the customary three, there was “the Image of St. Johnne the Evang ... of the churche.” At Gretford, again, “roode w̅t marie and Johne and the Image of saincte martine the Patrone.” At Kelby, a “picture of St. Peter” occurs in the same connection. At North Witham, after mentioning the “roode Marie and Johnne,” there are also specified “iij Images of ye rood-lofte.” It will be noted that some of these extra figures are of the patron saints of the various churches. In the rood-loft staircase of Anwick Church was found a statue of the Virgin and Child, with traces of colour on it.
All wooden screens (and probably all the stone ones also) were almost certainly coloured and gilt. The receding parts, or cavettos, of the mouldings are darkened with red or blue, the more prominent white, with often a small diaper. Round mouldings have spiral or wavy lines to show that the feature was circular. The most prominent parts were gilt, as were carved capitals. Gold, too, was often used as star or diaper on a blue or red ground. The mouldings are sometimes all blue and green, while the hollows are red foliage gilt on red ground, with all recessed parts red. A will leaving money to gilding the trelyse has already been given; Sir Richard Bozon, who died 25th March 1524, bequeathed 20s. towards the gilding of the rood-loft at All Saints’, arrowby. Thus, on Lincoln Minster screen can still be seen traces of colour, and a little scarlet blue and gold on cavettos and on crockets on that at Saltfleetby All Saints’. At South Somercotes the round mouldings are in spirals and black and gold, the spandrils of the panelling white or gold, alternate cavettos green and red, crockets gilt. In the portions of the screen at Billinghay the Tudor roses in the spandrils are coloured red and blue. At Addlethorpe the cavettos are red, finials and crockets gilt (in the north chantry chapel screen the cavettos are red and blue). At Croft the border of the panels is spirally in blue and gold, and the square flowers along the top are gilt. At Crowland the pillars of the uprights are spirally black and white, the ogees ending in finials gilt, and the cusping of the lower panels also gilt. In the beautiful screen at Alford the cavettos are red, and the leaves in the spandril gilt.
But, as well as the lavish decoration of the rood-screen and loft, which has just been described, there was very frequently some special colouring and embellishment of those parts of the church in more immediate proximity to it. The roof of the nave often has the eastern bay alone painted, as at Rainham (Kent), or that part more gorgeous than the rest, as at Southwold, where all the roof seems to have been coloured; but the eastern bay of the nave above the rood-loft has been most highly decorated with angels, with scrolls, and the implements of the Passion. In a very large number of churches was a representation of “The Doom,” or “Day of Judgment,” the most frequent place for this being over the chancel arch. “The final separation of the Church Triumphant from everything that defileth was almost invariably represented by the Great Doom painted in fresco over the rood-screen.” At Trinity Church, Coventry, and many other places mentioned by Keyser, this still exists.[108] Over the chancel arch in Caythorpe Church is a rude representation of the Last Judgment, with the Archangel Michael weighing souls, and at Swaton were paintings above and on each side of the chancel arch of scenes from the life of our Lord. “The Doom” also appears on a set of panels above the chancel arch at Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire, and at St. Michael’s, St. Albans; the Day of Judgment, with the crucified Saviour in the centre, is partly over the chancel arch and partly on a panel filling in the head of the arch. A somewhat similar condition has been noticed above at Cotes, and over the rood-loft in Snetterton Church, Norfolk, is a defaced panel-painting of the Day of Judgment. (Pugin gives a view of a similar arrangement at Arnes, near Bergen, now destroyed, I believe.) The most notable of these is the one at Wenhaston, Suffolk, discovered in 1892. This piece of panelling blocked off the chancel (there being no chancel-arch) above the rood-beam, and measured 17 feet 3 inches by 8 feet 6 inches. The position of the crucifix is clearly seen, and the spaces left for the figures of St. Mary and St. John on either side. In the triforium at Gloucester Cathedral is preserved another “Doom” on panel.
Along the upper edge of the rood-screen or rood-loft would be placed basins and spikes for candles, which would be lighted on special occasions. Hence comes the name of “candlebeam,” as before mentioned, and Gibbons[109] has given seven wills which illustrate this: e.g. Thomas Hadstoke leaves “To the Crucifix light in the Roode-lofte xxd. in Hycchyn church,” Thomas Buck to the “Rode lighte viijd. in Dorney Church,” William Gybbons to “the rode light” in Hamilden Church, and Thomas Fissher of Wooborn,“To thre lightes upon the rode beame vjd.” (probably one for the rood and one each for St. Mary and St. John). Also, in the continuation of that history of Crowland which passes by the name of Ingulph’s, we read as follows (1413): “In the Chapel of the blessed Mary, which had been previously prepared on the south side of the church, he (Brother Simon Eresby) most devoutly erected at his own expense two perks, which were becomingly prepared for the arrangement of the wax tapers thereon, together with a screen of considerable height, which terminated the said chapel below.” By the royal injunctions of 1538, no candles, tapers, or images of wax were thenceforth to be set before any image or picture, “but onelie the light that commonly goeth about the crosse of the church by the rood-loft,” &c.
Rood-Screen, St. Peter’s Church, Middle Rasen.
Then, in connection with the parish church rood-screen and rood-loft, there was an altar or altars. A favourite position for these, when the width of the church allowed, was on either side of the central door of the screen, against the western face of the screen. Those at Ranworth have been mentioned already; at Patricio, in South Wales, are two stone altars, one placed on each side (beneath the rood-loft) of the entrance into the chancel, westward of and against the screen supporting the loft. On either side of the entrance into the apse of Peterchurch, Herefordshire, is a stone altar—probably the rood-screen altars; on the western side of the stone screen of St. Mary Berkeley, on the north, an altar to St. Mary the Virgin, the piscina of which remains; on the south, one to St. Andrew. At Limber Magna the steps to the rood-loft are quite perfect, and exactly under where the rood-loft was placed there is on both sides the trace of what looks like a piscina, but no marks of any altar-slab have been discovered. At St. James’, Castle Bytham, at the restoration in 1900, were found at the east end of the nave, on either side of the chancel arch, remains of shallow, semi-circular-headed recesses, bearing traces of coloured decoration, forming the reredoses of the two small altars. At Winthorpe, close to the rood-screen, on the south side, is an aumbry, most probably for use in connection with an altar on the western front of the screen. Below the rood-loft staircase at Colsterworth is a little aumbry. In the base of a pier close by the rood-loft staircase at Barkston is a small hollow, possibly intended as a piscina or stoup for the service of a rood-altar. Mention has been made of an altar on the rood-loft of the perished screen at Grantham. At Frampton a beautiful little quatrefoil window, just under the roof at the south end of the rood-loft, has been opened out, as well as a hole in the wall beneath it, probably for an office book.
The fate of the roods and rood-lofts has been mentioned above; since those days much damage has been done to the screens which were left, by actual destruction, accident, ignorance, and neglect. Fortunately, in the last thirty years opinion has got educated somewhat, and many of the old screens have been restored, repaired, and (where necessary) replaced, while new ones, designed by the first architects of the day, are furnishing our churches. “Le bon temps viendra” for screens, and indeed has already come in part.
In domestic chapels of any size it is not unusual to find a chancel screen, as at The Mote, Ightham, figured by J. H. Parker. Also, in not a few instances, the western part of the chapel thus shut off has been divided into two storeys, the upper chamber being for the use of the lord and his family, the lower one for the domestics. This arrangement, according to J. H. Parker, continued to be usual in the fifteenth century, and even later, as at East Hendred, Berks, at Studley Priory and at Godstow Nunnery, in Oxfordshire. The chapel at Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire, has also been an example of the same. At East Hendred, the screen to both upper and lower chambers still exists; at Berkeley Castle the screen in front of the upper chamber is original, though altered, that of the lower one is modern. Here, as not infrequently, there is a fireplace in the upper chamber. At Chibburn, Northumberland, and at Trecarrel House, Cornwall, the same arrangement has prevailed. “In Hawarden Castle, Flintshire (said the same authority), the chapel is very small, and must have been merely a private oratory, or, as seems more probable, the chancel or sacrarium only, separated by a screen from the principal chamber in the keep, and with also a ‘squint’ or opening from the passage in the thickness of the wall, to enable persons thus placed to see the elevation of the Host.”
In the Chancery at Lincoln, at the north end of what was the Hall (pulled down by Chancellor Maundeville in 1714), are three pointed doorways of fourteenth-century date, the easternmost of which leads to the buttery, the western one to the cellars, while the middle one leads up a flight of steps with a timber-framed plaster partition on each side, and at the top of these stairs a door on the right hand (easterly, therefore) leads into a room which almost certainly was the chapel. On the eastern side of the partition is a screen of three double bays, open from the middle upwards, with contemporary ironwork. In the opposite side of the partition are two double loops, all being probably, according to the late E. J. Willson, of Henry VIII.’s date.
In hospitals also, a somewhat similar arrangement obtained, the chapel being equal in height to two storeys, and separated from a room above and below by a screen. These rooms were dormitories, so that the sick could, as it were, attend service while they were in bed. In Browne’s Hospital at Stamford, the chapel is open to the roof, and on the ground floor it is separated at the west, from a common room once a dormitory, by a handsome oak screen with doors groined over on both sides. There are returned stalls on the east side thereof. In the ancient hospital at Chichester, the chapel consists of a sacrarium only, and is separated from the hall or principal chamber by an open screen with a curtain. In the almshouses, Sherborne, Dorset, is or has been a similar arrangement.
Note.—Considerations of space, unfortunately, have prevented any allusion to Chantry Chapel Screens.