Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
Hope.—The rood-screen, including its gates, complete, is surmised to
have remained standing through all the disasters of the civil wars—at
least until the closing days of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate—because
of an incidental reference under the date 1658. In a list of the
parochial Easter dues discharged in that year, occurs the item of a sum
received from young people “at the chancell gate.” This might, however,
have meant no more than the spot in the alley where chancel and nave
converge, since the common spelling of the word “gate” of the present
day was “yate” until the eighteenth century, the original sense of
“gate” being rather the equivalent of gangway, path, or thoroughfare.
At any rate, all that was left of the screen by 1881 was the oak beam
of the plinth or base, showing that there had been at that point one
step ascending from the nave into the chancel. This historical relic,
however, was not respected, for in 1881–2, the vicar, Rev. Henry
Buckston, following the example of Dr. Hutchinson, the bane of All
Hallows’, in obstinate defiance of remonstrances, subjected the old
chancel to the most drastic and unnecessary treatment.
Horsley.—In or about the year 1825 it was noted by Rev. R. R. Rawlins
that “a screen of rudely ornamented open-work surrounded a portion of
the north aisle.”
Kirk Langley.—There were originally three screens in this church,
namely, the rood-screen and two parcloses. All three of them have been
so repeatedly altered and mixed up that it is difficult to follow
their history with certain accuracy. The year of darkest tragedy in
the annals of the fabric was 1839, when a devastating “restoration”
ravaged the ancient wood-fittings. Hitherto the parclose-screen of the
Meynell chantry, standing at the eastern extremity of the north aisle,
and extending as far as the centre of the first arch, had remained;
but it was then removed, and certain portions of it made into a
reredos. These fragments, and whatever else could be found belonging
to the same parclose, were diligently gathered together by Rev. Frank
Meynell, and are now incorporated in a new parclose encompassing the
first bay of the north aisle. The cornice, much repaired, contains a
handsome border, 4¾ inches deep, of vine and grape ornament upon a wave
basis; and there are, in all, fourteen of the old panels, carefully
patched together and mounted on canvas backing to strengthen them.
They comprise seven (or, to count one slight variant as additional,
eight) distinct patterns of late Perpendicular in point of date, but
such that so far from being jaded or commonplace, give the lie to the
“correct” view of the decadence of later mediæval art, and testify
to the inexhaustible vitality and resourcefulness of Gothic fancy to
the end. The other parclose stood between the south aisle and the
south chapel, screening the Twyford chantry. In 1710 Bassano noted the
screen, with the arms of Twyford over its entrance doorway. By 1879
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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