Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
With regard to the third screen, Sir Gilbert Scott, in the above-quoted
_Recollections_, wrote: “There existed in the church, as I found it, a
curious and beautiful family pew and chapel, enclosed by screenwork,
to the west of one of the piers of the central tower. This was called
the Foljambe chapel, and was a beautiful work of Henry VIII.’s time.
What to do with it I did not know. It was right in the way of the
arrangements, and could not but have been removed. I at last determined
to use its screenwork to form a reredos.” Such is the “restorer’s”
frank and ingenuous confession of his wanton abuse of a grand,
historical monument. The remains of this chantry parclose (its openwork
still disfigured by metal panels painted with the Ten Commandments,
according to the fashion of the day, _circa_ 1843–5) were forced to
migrate once more in 1898, and now (March, 1907) stand against the
west wall of the south transept. The screenwork is rectagonal in plan.
As at present made up it is just under 22 feet long, and consists
of six compartments, centring from 3 ft. 6½ in. to 3 ft. 8 in., of
three lights each. The openings are 3 ft. 7 in. high, with stem-like
tracery in the head to the depth of 9½ inches. The upper part is coved,
projecting 35 inches from back to front. The total height from the
top of the cresting to the ground just exceeds eight feet. The solid
part below the openings has apparently been cut down, since it is only
2 ft. 11 in. high. The rail is carved with a band of quatrefoils and
trefoils in the alternate swell and trough of a wave line, and the
blind panelling is traceried in the head to the depth of 5 inches. The
cornice is elaborately carved with a grape and vine pattern on a wave
basis, with shields introduced; the band itself, however, absurdly
turned upside down. It displays the following seven distinct coats
of arms, which appear by themselves and in various combinations of
impalement:—
Ashton A mullet.
Breton A chevron between three escallops.
Bussex Barry of six (represented as seven).
Foljambe A bend between six escallops.
Leeke On a saltire (not represented, as it ought to be,
engrailed), nine annulets.
Loudham On a bend, five cross crosslets.
Nevile A saltire ermine.
That the screens now standing do not represent the full complement of
screenwork with which Chesterfield Church was enriched when the shock
of the Reformation fell upon it, is attested by additional fragments of
tracery, one of them let into the underpart of a communion table in the
south-east chapel, and more in a low rail about the site of the former
high altar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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