#roodscreen

This morning we set off to explore a small area of North Norfolk with a copy of Simon Jenkins’ book ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches’. It’s very fertile hunting ground with 600 medieval churches in the county and although I visited many churches when I was growing up here, I’d never before visited St Agnes Church in Cawston, which Jenkins gives three stars and describes as ‘a monument to cloth’. It is an extraordinarily ostentatious church inside and one can’t help but be wowed by the hammer beam roof carved with a host of winged angels and saints or by one of the highest rood screens in the country, compete with the upper tracery and late 15th century painted saints. It’s extraordinary that this and the l ceiling decoration survived the reformation and Cromwell’s men, not broken up or defaced. Believed to be by Flemish Artists, the rood screen includes St Matthew reading a book with spectacles. There are chapels in the north and south transcepts paid for by wealthy guilds. I was interested to see that the conservator Pauline Plummer had worked on the screen: she had also consolidated panels from Amberley Castle once on loan to Pallant House Gallery and now in Chichester’s Bishop’s Palace. Today we were grateful to the parish priest who was busy recording his Sunday service ready to broadcast tomorrow but who spoke to us afterwards. The new virtual reality for churches. #cawstonchurch #church #norfolkchurches #interiors #medievalart #medievalarchitecture #norfolk #roodscreen (at Cawston Parish Church) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPdyg2tFvYn/?utm_medium=tumblr

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ANGELS FOR EASTER: Holy Trinity in Blythburgh is a Medieval treasure chest in a Suffolk village, known as ‘the Cathedral of the Marshes’. One can see why Simon Jenkins picked it out as one of the very best churches in England. With its extraordinary facade - featuring a Gothic quatrefoil frieze; knapped flint in checkerboard patterns and forming Gothic lettering; and a plethora of gargoyles and beasts - it must have screamed wealth and power (presumably of the 12th century Priory); but inside it is still surprisingly complete despite self-editing in the time of Cromwell; with carved angels on the ceiling and a Medieval roof screen. My grandparents brought me here when I was a young teenager and already obsessed by visiting churches; and I have always remembered it - and buying a laminated reproduction of Dürer’s praying hands, with a really mawkish story on the back. I remember being told that the rings on pillars at the end of the nave were for Cromwell to tie his horses, but I couldn’t find anything on it, so perhaps that was just a story I was told. #blythburgh #medieval #medievalarchitecture #suffolk #gothic #architectures #interiors #angrls #roodscreen (at Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwgjbMMFp_q/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ml6n3kimfous

May 2022

Rood screen panels, and detail from St Mary's, North Elmham. . . . . #northelmham #northelmhamchurch #roodscreen #norfolk #history #heritage #church #churchesofinstagram #medieval #fiftyshades_of_history #insta_uk #august2018 (at North Elmham)

The objects above are roodscreen doors from the Ashprington Church in Devon. They are estimated to date from around 1150-1200, and their worn appearance reflects this. The doors have relatively detailed carving, which would have been funded by donations from the parish. This possibly suggests that the members of this parish had a strong attachment to their church and it was important to the community to have lavish decorations in this place of worship. By the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, roodscreens were in the majority of English parish churches. They created a barrier in church, which separated the area around the altar from the lay people. The reformation had a significant impact on roodscreens, though, and it is notable that these doors have survived throughout reigns such as Edward VI’s where they were ordered to be removed. The paint remains on these doors demonstrates that they were repainted throughout the Reformation during different reigns. The saint painted on the right was originally a king, reflecting the Reformed idea of disliking idolatry. The survival of the roodscreens seems to show an attachment to Catholic traditions and perhaps goes against the argument that the laity were widely supportive of the reformation.

#roodscreen with #organs and #altar in #gloucester #cathedral #religiousarchitecture #jaceksphotos (at Gloucester Cathedral)

#nationalhistoriclandmark #historic #stjamestheless #anglocatholic #Episcopal #church #Philadelphia #roodscreen #chancel #church_masters (at St. James School)