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.