pair of piers below the western crossing. Rev. John Raine, in his
_History and Antiquities of Blyth_ (1860), described this screen
as having fared very ill, for “with the exception of a fragment at the
corner of the private gallery of Blyth Hall[49] and the lower panels,
it has been destroyed; and ... these panels, all perfect though they
are, are daubed over with paint, so as completely to obliterate the
figures, except at the very base.” The screen, cleaned and “restored,”
is of oak and rectangular in construction. It measures 21 ft. 6 in.
long by 8 ft. 9 in. (exclusive of a modern lintel), with compartments
centring at 1 ft. 2½ in. and having Perpendicular tracery to the depth
of 12 in. in the head of the fenestration. The traceries are flat
at the back, and only three at the northern extremity are genuine.
They had been incorporated at one time in the Blyth Hall gallery. The
doorway, contrary to what one would expect, is in the middle, and it
has a clear opening of 3 ft. ½ in. The existing lintel rests in a
hole of about 13 in. square in the second pier of the south arcade.
The wainscot is 4 ft. 2 in. high and without tracery in the heads of
the panels. The screen has at one time been richly coloured; only
eleven, however, of the wainscot panels have paintings of saints, so
much worn and mutilated as to be barely recognisable. The backgrounds
are alternately green and deep purplish red. The subjects are as
follow from north to south:--1. St. George. 2. Female saint in red
robe, hands raised. 3. Archbishop in pontificals, chasuble red. 4.
Female saint in red robe under green cloak, hands raised. 5. Abbot,
or Abbess, in brown habit, crosier in hand. 6. Female saint in brown
habit, kneeling to left, and contemplating a vision of our Lord rising
out of the tomb or from clouds. Here is the doorway, having a clear
opening of 3 ft. ½ in. South of the doorway:--7. Female saint, hands
raised. 8. Saint in armour, with what looks like a hawk on his right
hand. ? St. Bavon. 9. Figure in red, with close-fitting hood of red
on the head, no nimbus, right hand holding what appears to be a boot;
in which case it would represent Master John Schorne. 10. Figure in
red, kneeling to right, and contemplating a vision. 11. Abbot, or
Abbess, in brown habit, crosier in hand. Some of these figures have
been identified respectively with Saints Boniface, Wilfrid, Edward,
and Bridget. The last named, at any rate, is likely enough to be
correct, seeing that among the lights of this church were one of St.
Bridget, as also one of St. Sitha (Zita), which proves both these
saints to have been objects of devotion in the place. Various chases
in the piers show that the two arches to west of the above-described
screen were both occupied by wooden parcloses. Across the south or
parochial aisle, about in line with the above-described screen across
the nave, stands another Perpendicular oak screen, authentic in the
main, though patched, repaired, and even, according to a note by C.
Clement Hodges in the _John of Gaunt Sketch Book_ (1880) having
some details restored in composition. This screen measures 23 ft. 7
in. long by 12 ft. 10 in. high (cresting included). It comprises five
bays centring at 4 ft. 5 in. to 4 ft. 6 in., of three lights each. The
cord-line, as also the springing level of the vaulting, is 4 ft. 6½ in.
above the middle rail. The tracery is 21 in. deep in the heads of the
fenestration, which takes the form of depressed two-centred arches. The
bases (9½ in. high) and the caps (8½ in. high) of the boutel-shafts
are polygonal. The vaulting is complete on both sides of the screen,
and the width across the top of the platform from front to back is 5
ft. 6 in. The breast-summer is deep, moulded, and has a hollow with
square pateras. The wainscot is 4 ft. 2½ in. high, with tracery in the
head of the panels to the depth of 9½ in. The panels, painted with
figures, were “brought to light in 1842 from the boards and matting of
pews, behind which they were concealed.” They may now, writes Raine in
1860, “be seen with sufficient distinctness, though with a few marks
of Puritanical violence; with the exception of that of St. Ursula,
which was found in such a state of decay as to justify its removal to a
place of safe preservation. Other figures on the panels of the parish
rood-screen have been cut away to make a road to the reading-desk and
pulpit.” Six painted panels survive, as follow, from left to right:--To
north of the doorway are: 1. St. Stephen in a red dalmatic; 2.? St.
Agatha stripped to the middle, her breasts transversely pierced by
a sword. 3. St. Edmund, crowned and holding a sceptre and arrows.
To south of the doorway (which has a clear opening of 4 ft. 6½ in.)
are: 4. St. Helen; 5. St. Barbara; and 6. St. Ursula. Five of these
paintings are figured in outline by J. G. Weightman in Rev. John
Raine’s work.
In the south arcade wall a passage from one loft to the other was
tunnelled through the spandrel over the pier. This passage is walled
up toward the north, but remains visible, with a hollow opening on the
south side of the arcade, over the top of the south aisle screen.
At right angles to the north end of the south aisle screen, and
enclosing the north side of the parochial chancel, is another oak
screen of Perpendicular date and rectangular construction. It measures
14 ft. long by 9 ft. 5 in. high. It comprises a doorway at the east
end and eight lights, only two compartments, centring at 3 ft. 10 in.
and consisting of three lights apiece, being complete. It originally
comprised at least four compartments, including the doorway. The
wainscot is 4 ft. 3 in. high, and the tracery in the fenestration heads
is 9½ in. deep. In the west part of the north aisle of the nave are two
runs of panelling, both of similar character but not quite identical
in design, one of them bearing distinct traces of ancient painting;
panelling which must have belonged to the parapets of the rood-loft.
There is no tracery, but the stiles are handsomely moulded. One run, 7
ft. 1½ in. long by 4 ft. high, comprises six panels centring at 1 ft.
1½ in., the hand-rail being 6¼ in. high. The other run, 9 ft. 3½ in.
long by 2 ft. 11½ in. high, comprises eight panels centring at about 14
in., the hand-rail being 5¾ in. high. Both hand-rails are elaborately
embattled, like alternate billet mouldings. Under the western tower are
three more fragments of similar hand-rail, respectively 2 ft. 3½ in., 2
ft. 4 in., and 2 ft. 5 in. long.
BRIDGFORD, WEST (October 1911).--Across the present south aisle, and on
the site of what was originally the east wall of the chancel previously
to the enlarging of the church, stands an oak screen (_circa_ 1380), of
rectangular construction. The character of the framework is that of a
stone screen carried out in wood, with mason joints. It comprises four
compartments, centring on an average at 1 ft. 5½ in., on either hand
of the central doorway, the divisions of the wainscot corresponding
with those of the fenestration. The doorway has a trefoil-cusped and
feathered head, springing 6 ft. 6½ in. from the ground; it centres at
4 ft. 2½ in. and has a clear opening of 3 ft. 9½ in. The wainscot, 3
ft. 7½ in. high, has tracery in the head of the panels to the depth of
8½ in., but only the northernmost tracery ornament is authentic. The
middle rail, embattled along the front edge, is flat upon the top, a
familiar feature in early screenwork. The cord-line is 4 ft. 1½ in.
above the middle rail and in the head of the fenestration the tracery
is 16 in. deep. This tracery is in two orders on the west face of the
screen, but the first order, with crocketed ogee ornament imposed, does
not occur on the east face. The treatment of the crockets is peculiar,
they being like rosettes at the points of cusping that radiates,
instead of leaves that run in an upward direction in the usual manner.
Moreover, the front surface of the tracery takes the form of a bead
instead of the more usual fillet. The total height of the screen is
9 ft. 10 in. The lintel, 17 ft. 7 in. long, and embattled along the
top, has a cavetto in which at intervals are pateras, all of floral
ornament except the northernmost one (which represents a dog, or cat,
with a rat in its mouth) and the pair surmounting the door-jambs.
These two are masks, the northern one of which is muzzled. The jambs
and the end-uprights are 5 in. wide, with mouldings in the lower part
and pinnacles in the upper part, all cut out of the solid. A chase, 2
in. wide, in the abacus of the easternmost respond of the south aisle
arcade shows that a wooden screen stood in the eastern arch of the
arcade opening into the south aisle.
[Illustration: WEST BRIDGFORD: OLD ROOD-SCREEN.
(Now in south aisle of enlarged church.)]
BUNNY (October 1911).--A much-mutilated oak screen, of rectangular
construction and fourteenth century date, stands across the
chancel-arch, which, however, on account of the abnormally uneven
spacing of the screen, can scarcely be its original position. There are
three compartments on the north side of the entrance and two on the
south, their centrings varying from 2 ft. 2 in. to 2 ft. 6 in. The five
openings of the fenestration have ogee tracery to the depth of from 10
to 10½ in. in the head. The entrance has a clear opening of 3 ft. 10
in. wide by 8 ft. 6 in. high to the apex of its two-centred arch. The
latter is formed by a pair of solid spandrels, springing at a depth of
2 ft. 8 in. below the lintel, and sculptured with conventional foliage,
in low relief, of lithic character. In fact, the whole screen except
its fenestration tracery, is mason’s work in wood. The jambs of the
doorway have remains of buttressing; and the muntins have conspicuous
stops at their junction with the middle rail. The latter has been
cruelly hacked about and retains only scanty remains of the original
battlementing along the front. The wainscot stands 4 ft. 3 in. high,
but is now a mere framework, having been robbed of its stiles and
panels. The tracery is flat at the back. Some remnants of the former
colouring may be discerned. The north portion of the screen is 7 ft.
1 in. long and the south portion 6 ft. 1 in. The total length is 17
ft., the height 8 ft. 11 in., or 9 ft. 10 in. including the lintel,
which is 19 ft. 4 in. long, and an incongruous addition, of eighteenth
century character. In the upper part of the chancel-arch was a boarded
tympanum, removed shortly before 1902. The stone of the east sweep of
the easternmost arch of the north arcade has been cut into, probably
for fitting the rood-loft into position.
CALVERTON.--By will dated 10th October 1499, Thomas Belfin left 13s.
4d. “_facture unius_ roode-lofte _in ecclesia de_ Calverton.” The
middle part of the abacus and astragal of the capital of the north
reveal of the chancel-arch has been cut through vertically for the
insertion of wooden screenwork.
CAR COLSTON.--In 1824 W. Stretton recorded that a rich screen,
separating the chancel from the nave, had been “lately taken down.”
But Mr. T. M. Blagg, F.S.A., thinks that Stretton must have attributed
the removal of the screen to too recent a date. All recollection of it
had long passed out of mind by 1846 or 1847, when, during the process
of cementing the middle alley of the nave (Mr. Blagg’s grandfather
then being churchwarden) some broken tracery of a pre-Reformation
screen was quite unexpectedly discovered beneath a floor-slab. By the
churchwarden’s orders, the remains of screenwork were left where they
had been found and the slab replaced over them. At the east end of
the south aisle (according to information supplied by Mr. Harry Gill,
M.S.A.) stands a dado formed of part of the screen-wainscot, measuring
4 ft. 3 in. long by 3 ft. 6½ in. high, inclusive of the middle rail,
itself 4½ in. high. It consists of vertical boarding, reeded at the
joints; its identity being established by the fact that it is pierced
with holes for elevation-squints. Two of the holes are round, while the
third is an elongated quatrefoil. Both reveals of the chancel-arch are
hollowed, at a level of 3 ft. 10 in. from the bottom, with a chase 5
in. by 4½ in. for the insertion of wooden screenwork; and at a level of
3 ft. 2 in. above the chase is another one, 6 in. square, immediately
below the necking of the chancel-arch. These chases are now patched
with new stone. Moreover, the abacus has a chase extending upwards into
the springer, for the lintel of the screen. The cutting away of part of
the mouldings on the east side of the chancel-arch indicates the site
of the eastern front of the rood-loft.
CLAYWORTH (October 1911).--Though all the upper portion of the
chancel-screen is only modern, the greater part of the wainscot is
genuine. It stands 4 ft. 1 in. high, with head-tracery 10 in. deep, and
of very doubtful authenticity. The back, or eastward, surface of the
panels is of feather-edge boarding. The chief feature of the screen is
the extraordinary massiveness of the middle rail, which measures 8 in.
high, is embattled along the top edge, and had square pateras along its
westward front on either hand of the doorway. The north section having
been curtailed, there are only two pateras on its rail and three panels
below; but the south section, which appears to be of approximately
the original dimensions, is 6 ft. 1 in. long, has three pateras along
the rail, and comprises four compartments. The uprights have massive
buttresses, square on plan. The rood-loft was approached from the
north. The entrance in the northward face of the north chancel-pier
is rectangular, 5 ft. 4 in. high by 1 ft. 7 in. wide. It is 1 ft. 3½
in. above the present floor level, and has a rebate, showing that the
door swung outward from the stair. Three stone steps inside remain,
but the rest of the stair is blocked. The issue naveward through the
east spandrel of the north arcade is walled up likewise. Marks in the
masonry indicate that there was formerly a parclose in the arch between
the chancel and the south chapel, that of St. Nicholas.
Across the south aisle, and in line with the chancel-arch, there stands
a stone screen-wall, 15 in. thick, 11 ft. 2 in. long, and about 10 ft.
6 in. high. It consists of three arched openings of obtuse two-centred
form, each being constructed of two blocks of stone with a joint at the
apex. The middle aperture 3 ft. 4 in. wide, with jambs measuring 9 in.
each from north to south, is open to the ground, forming a doorway;
but this does not look like the original plan, because the chamfer,
instead of being carried down to the floor, is returned on the line of
the fenestration-cill and has been abruptly cut through at the level of
the latter in order to make the doorway. The change, however, if change
it was, must have taken place previously to 1676, for a plan of the
building in the “Rector’s Book” of that date shows the central doorway
then in existence. The plinth is 11 in. high, and the wall sets on 2¾
in., back and front, except on the westward front of the south section.
From the ground to the fenestration-cill measures 4 ft. 7 in. high,
the latter having a stool for the mullions worked on it. From the cill
to the spring of the arches measures 3 ft. ½ in. The northern opening
is 4 ft. 1 in. high by 2 ft. 5½ in., the southern one 4 ft. 2 in. high
by 2 ft. 6 in. Both of them, like the upper part of the doorway, have
chamfered edges of fairly wide splay. There is no sculpture whatever,
but the surface of the stone shows abundant traces of red paint.
COLSTON BASSET.--W. Stretton noted on 25th October 1811:--“The
... Gothic screen is still standing and is chaste and handsome,” and
also that “the south transept has a fine Gothic screen still standing.”
The latter was in two parts, one occupying the arch between the nave
and the transept, the other the arch between the transept and south
aisle. The church itself having been wantonly dismantled and turned
into a ruin in 1892, the screens taken out of it were removed to Long
Whatton church, Leicestershire.
COSTOCK.--The church being without a chancel-arch, there was,
previously to the sadly drastic “restoration” in 1848, a boarded
partition, or tympanum, reaching to the roof from the top of the
rood-screen. The latter was ancient, and is described as having been in
a dilapidated state, and covered with whitewash.
COTGRAVE.--“The staircase to the rood-loft on the south side of the
chancel-arch is walled up.” (J. T. Godfrey, 1907.)
CROPWELL BISHOP.--In 1824 Stretton noted that the chancel was separated
from the nave by a screen, which, however, has now disappeared.
DRAYTON, EAST.--There is a good late-fifteenth century rood-screen
with handsome tracery. The coved top remains, but the lower panels are
wanting and their place is occupied by modern boarding. (Communicated
by Rev. Dr. Cox, 1911.)
ELTON.--Remains of fifteenth-century screenwork, incorporated in the
high pews, were noted by Rev. Dr. Cox in 1904.
FINNINGLEY.--When Stretton wrote, the east end of the north aisle was
still parted off by a Gothic screen, the enclosure being used as a
vestry.
GAMSTON.--At the north-east end of the nave are the rood-stairs,
encased in a turret rising above the roof.
GEDLING.--An oak screen of Perpendicular work enclosed the east end of
the north aisle until the “restoration” in 1871–72, when it was taken
down and a portion only, consisting of the central doorway and two side
compartments, preserved, and set up in the arch of the tower at the
west end of the north aisle.
GRANBY.--“The chancel-arch bears evidence of the former existence of a
screen.” (J. T. Godfrey, 1907.)
HAWTON (1906).--The oak rood-screen, standing under the western order
of the chancel-arch, dates from the latter half of the fifteenth
century. Rectangular in construction, the screen measures 17 ft. 6½ in.
long by 10 ft. 6½ in. high. It comprises five compartments, the two on
either hand of the doorway centring at 3 ft. 3½ in., and divided by
moulded muntins (3¾ in. wide from north to south) into three lights
apiece, opening 9 in. wide. The wainscot, 4 ft. 4 in. high, is divided
into rectangular panels, corresponding in spacing to the divisions of
the fenestration, and having no tracery in the head, but pierced in
the upper part, as though for elevation-squints, with little crosses
composed of five circles connected by straight slits, not unlike a
cross pommée in heraldry. The door-jambs and the greater muntins (5 in.
wide from north to south) are buttressed in the west with buttresses,
square on plan, with panelled fronts, moulded bases, and two set-offs
each. The middle rail, flat at the top, is 8 in. high. The fenestration
each side of the entrance is 5 ft. 6 in. high with Perpendicular
tracery in the head to the depth of 1 ft. 3½ in. An embattled transom
conspicuously runs through the tracery of the fifteen lights. The
doorway, which is without doors or gates, has a clear opening of 3 ft.
3 in. wide. The door-head is in the form of an arch with quatrefoil
pierced spandrels, and cusped and feathered underneath, springing,
at a level of 6 ft. 6½ in. from the bottom of the screen, under an
horizontal lintel. The latter (5¾ in. high) cuts off the minor muntins
above it at a distance of 1 ft. 4 in. below the cornice, itself 8½ in.
high, and, like the middle rail and the door-lintel, handsomely moulded
and embattled along the upper edge. The cornice is morticed along the
top for the ribs of the rood-loft coving. The mortices, about an inch
deep by 1¾ in. from east to west by 3 to 3½ in. long, centre on the
average at 15 in. The coving has unfortunately perished with the loft,
but, what is an extremely rare and notable feature, there remains,
embedded in the north wall of the nave, the end of the loft woodwork,
cut off flush with the plaster in the sixteenth century and eventually
brought to light through the flaying of the wall surface in modern
times. The profile of the breast-summer can be made out, but that of
the hand-rail is less clear. Enough, however, survives to show that the
level of the rood-loft platform was some 12 ft. 9 in. above the present
floor level, and that the front parapet measured 3 ft. 10½ in. high,
the top of the hand-rail being therefore 16 ft. 7½ in. from the floor.
A sketch elevation, with details and sections of the rood-screen, drawn
by J. Norton in 1871, is to be found in _The Spring Gardens Sketch
Book_, plates 43 and 44, vol. v. 1874.
[Illustration: Holme Church toward the South-east from the
Nave.]
HOLME (October 1911).--In this church are three screens in a sad state
of neglect and dilapidation--the rood-screen the worst. They are all
fifteenth-century work of timber and rectangular in construction. There
is no chancel-arch, but the rood-screen extends, 13 ft. 5 in. long by
9 ft. 6 in. high, from the north wall to the south-arcade wall. The
wainscot (exclusive of the ground-cill, which is not original) stands 3
ft. 8 in. high and has no head-tracery. Part of the wainscot boarding
itself is missing. The middle rail is moulded and measures 5¾ in. high.
The fenestration, centring from 2 ft. 3 in. to 2 ft. 5 in., is divided
into four lights on either hand of the doorway, which opens 3 ft. 3½
in. in the clear, and has neither doors nor gates. The cord-line is
3 ft. 5 in. above the middle rail. The fenestration tracery should
be 10 in. deep, but only one piece, that in the head of the light to
north of the doorway, is original. It is flat at the back. The rest of
the tracery 10½ in. deep and not corresponding with the original one
in design, nor in spacing with the framework of the screen itself,
does not belong. Indeed it is not screen-tracery at all, but has been
taken from the front of stall-desks and misapplied to the screen so
unintelligently that the flat hind part is actually turned round toward
the front. The lintel is of deal, with portions of old broken cresting
attached both to the east and west sides.
Some 3 ft. further west than the rood-screen, stands a parclose under
the arch between the nave’s south aisle and the south chapel. The
screen measures 15 ft. 5½ in. long by 8 ft. 11 in. It comprises five
compartments, centring at 2 ft. 1½ in., and divided into two lights
apiece. The wainscot, exclusive of the ground-cill, which is 5 in.
high, stands 3 ft. 9 in. high, with head-tracery to the depth of 11
in. The doorway has a clear opening of 3 ft. 2 in., and part of the
original door remains; a minor muntin, however, and the lower panels
wanting, though the head-traceries, 10¼ in. deep, are still preserved.
There remain also the old lock, hasp, and part of the sliding bolt. The
cord-line is 3 ft. 5 in. above the middle rail; and the fenestration
tracery, very like that of the rood-screen, is 11 in. deep. The lintel
is substantial, and well moulded, but has no cresting.
The third screen, of much the same date and character as the others,
is a parclose occupying part of the westernmost arch between the
chancel and the south chapel. It measures 7 ft. 5½ in. long by 8 ft. 1
in. high, and consists of four compartments centring at 1 ft. 9½ in.,
and divided each into two lights by minor muntins. There is a doorway
at the east end of the screen, the rebate showing that the door, now
lost, swung into the chapel. The wainscot, of which all the panels are
missing, stood 3 ft. 3 in. high; the cord-line is 3 ft. 4½ in. above
the middle rail, and the head-tracery of the fenestration is 11 in.
deep.
HOLME PIERREPONT.--On the north outside wall, in line with the
chancel-arch, is a semi-circular projection having an embattled
parapet level with the top of the wall. Though, owing to inside
plastering, there is now no visible means of access, there can be no
doubt that this was the rood-stair turret.