Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
But it is rather in parclose screens that this feature of excessive
elongation is more especially in evidence. To counteract its ungainly
appearance, without at the same time diminishing the extent of the
aperture, resort is had in the principal screens at Chesterfield to
the device of a transom to divide the fenestration about midway. This
horizontal member, being feathered underneath, not only enhances the
decorative character of the screenwork by the added effect of a lower
tier of tracery-headed lights, but also makes for structural strength
by providing a latitudinal junction from muntin to muntin.
Another point of similarity between Derbyshire rood-screens and the
typical midland screens at (_e.g._, at Somerton, in Oxfordshire; Blore,
in Staffordshire; Wormleighton, in Warwickshire; and Strelley, in
Nottinghamshire), and of divergence between the former and southern
examples, is that, where the design comprises vaulting, the springing
of the ribs is not necessarily in line with the cord or base of the
pierced tracery of the bay-heads (as is practically the rule for it
to be in Kent, Devonshire, and Somerset), but at a higher level,
sometimes with a discrepancy of nearly two feet between the two levels.
The result of this arrangement is not altogether happy. For traceried
ornament that extends below the limits of a tympanum, failing to define
the springing-point, tends to make the vaulting itself look dwarfed and
curtailed. For the latter to show to best advantage, the ribs should
have an obvious correspondence with the sweep of the fenestration arch
from spring to crown. Wherever it is otherwise, a sense of lack of
homogeneity between the parts cannot but be felt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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