Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
Church Broughton.—In 1820, portions of the parcloses that used to
shut off the chantries or side altars at the end of the aisles still
existed; but in 1845–6 the church was “repaired,” with the usual result
that the screens were dismembered. Considerable remains, however, of
the oak tracery are embodied in a modern reredos behind the altar.
Crich.—The screen which is now in St. Peter’s, Derby, and which was
originally in Crich church, is constructed on a rectagonal principle,
that is to say, it was never vaulted. It consists of six compartments,
each having an average opening of 13 inches and an average centring of
1 ft. 5 in. The height of the fenestration from the cill to the top of
the opening is 58 inches, the head being occupied to the depth of 12½
inches by pierced tracery of Perpendicular design, with an embattled
transom intersecting it in a straight line from side to side. The
screen itself is divided into two halves, each 4 ft. 4 in. long, and
each having, immediately below the cill, a pierced panel of cusped
tracery of trellis-like design, 3 ft. 10 in. long by 6¾ in. high. For
the rest, seeing that the screen has been made up for its present
position, to give the dimensions of its total height and length would
only be to mislead.
Denby.—“A rudely carved screen between nave and chancel”—such was
the description given of it in 1825—was swept away in the atrocious
“restoration” of 1838.
Derby.—It is piteous to recall with what reckless devastation the
mediæval churches of the borough of Derby have been visited. The
fate of All Hallows’ has been already told. Another of the ancient
churches of the place, St. Alkmund’s, was destroyed in 1844. Its
former rood-loft, to judge from the ground plan of the building, must
have extended across the width of the nave only. It has been related
by those who knew the old church, that the tower, together with the
westernmost bay of either aisle of the nave, were divided by screening
from the remainder of the building. What these screens were like
records do not state, but it is probable enough that they may have been
made out of the remains of the rood-screen or parclose screenwork. St.
Michael’s Church, totally demolished in 1856–7, contained a carved
screen of Perpendicular workmanship. The rood-entrance and staircase
led up to the loft from the south aisle. At St. Peter’s tradition
tells that a parclose formerly separated the eastern portion of the
north aisle from the body of the church; and remnants of wooden screen
work were discovered under the flooring of the pews at the re-pewing
in 1859. The screen which now occupies the place of the original
rood-screen, belonging, as it did, to Crich church, has been already
described under that head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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