Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
More complete than the above-named is the imposing parclose which
stands in the south transept, and, extending throughout the entire
length of the transept, divides it for the two chantry chapels to
eastwards. These chapels were dedicated to Our Lady and St George
respectively, while against the westward face of the screen stood the
altar of St Michael on the left, and that of St Mary Magdalene on the
right. The screen consists of ten bays, four-centred; the third bay
from either end forming a doorway to lead into the corresponding chapel
beyond it. The bays vary in centring from 3 ft 4½ in. to 4 ft. 1 in.
The upper part of the screen expands eastwards and westwards with
groined vaults (partly renovated, the interspaces traceried on the
west side but plain on the east) into a wide platform of from 5 to 6
feet from front to back, and such that was apparently never finished
with a loft. The elevation of the whole (exclusive of a stone plinth
of 4½ inches) is 15 feet in height. The fenestration is strikingly
lofty, the distance from the cill to the summit of the opening being
8 ft. 6 in., with tracery in the head to the depth of 26 inches. The
base of this tracery descends 10 inches below the level of the caps
and the springing of the vaults. The tracery itself is of handsome
Perpendicular design, and is enriched with tall, crocketed pinnacles
running up through the midst of the batement lights. The opening is
sub-divided horizontally, at a distance of 49 inches from the crown
of the arch, by a transom cusped and feathered on its under side. The
solid part of the screen is 4 ft. 7 in. high. The rail is carved with a
waving tracery pattern; the blind panelling is traceried in the head,
and has a band of quatrefoil ornament along the bottom. The principal
muntins are faced with clustered shafts. The more northern of the two
doorways, with Tudor roses in the spandrils and cinquefoil cusping on
the under side, is original, but the other doorway is an unsatisfactory
piece of patch work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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