Chapter XI: Part 11

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.

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.

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.

Doveridge.—In 1877 it was observed that three pieces of carving known to have come from hence, and suspected to have belonged to the former screen here, were affixed to the chest in Sudbury church. These pieces comprised the centrepiece on the front of the chest, and the ornaments on the two sides of it.

Elvaston.—The drastic “restoration” of 1904, for all the unstinting munificence of the vicar, Rev. C. Prodgers, who entrusted the work to no less eminent an architect than Mr. Bodley, has swept away a number of landmarks, the removal of which the antiquary must record only with pain and sorrow. Beside the lengthening of the chancel by eleven feet eastwards, and the abolition of the east window, a proceeding alien to the traditions of an English parish church, the rood-screen itself has been shifted and tampered with in a manner far from conservative. Previously to the “restoration” the screen consisted of eight bays (the two midmost bays comprising the doorway), and stood in the recess of the chancel arch, into which space it exactly fitted. In the course of the “restoration” the screen (found to have been patched with common deal in many places, and the whole of it thickly coated with brown paint) was taken to Cambridge to be pickled, and to have the decayed and the deal portions replaced in oak. Thus far, good. But returning renovated and lengthened by a fresh, narrow bay of blind panelling at each end, so as to ruin its proportions, the rood-screen, now too long for its former site, was erected anew in a more westerly position against the east wall of the nave. It was, moreover, provided with elaborate metal gates, which are too high to give a satisfactory effect, inasmuch as they break the horizontal line of the wooden rail to right and left. Another flagrant offence is that the carved ornaments, integrally joined (as at Chaddesden) to the east side of the entrance jambs of the screen to form the ends of the return stalls, have been detached from their proper place and egregiously misappropriated for the ends of new sedilia. Their sides are richly panelled with Perpendicular tracery, in the top of which is a human face, with the hair and beard treated like Gothic leafage. The upper extremities of these stall-ends represent cherubim, below which are large carved crockets, models for boldness of outline and vigorous crispness of execution. The occurrence on the elbows respectively of a lion and an antelope, chained and collared, both of them seated on their haunches, confines the production of the work within determinate historical limits. The lion has been described as “chained,” but after examining it in search of the chain, I came to the conclusion that the latter is merely a wavy lock of the lion’s mane. As to whether there is a chain or not will probably always remain a moot question, like the heads of the famous lions over the gate of Mycenæ. Assuming, then, that this particular lion is chainless, it would stand either for the lion of England or the white lion of the house of March; while the antelope, gorged and chained, is the familiar cognisance of the de Bohuns. These two together would be the heraldic supporters of Edward IV. (1466–1483), and therefore bear out the presumption that the rood-loft and screen were erected in his time by bequest of Lord Mountjoy. This nobleman’s will, dated 1474, directs that the parish church and chancel of Our Lady at Elvaston should be “made up and finished completely” at the cost of his estate. The “chancel” referred to can hardly be other than the enclosed chapel, now occupied by the Earl of Harrington’s family pew, in the south aisle. As long as the stall ends remained in their original situation attached to the rood-screen, the heraldry they display afforded a valuable clue to the date of its execution. But their dislocation and perversion amounts to the falsification of a historical document. For who that in years to come shall see them as at present made up into sham sedilia, will ever be able to identify them for what they truly are? The harm, done, however, is happily not irremediable, for the stall ends can yet be restored to their rightful place. To do so without delay is no more than an act of justice due to the past and the present, as also to future generations. The dimensions of the Elvaston rood-screen (exclusive of the modern accretions) are: height, 10 ft. 7 in., and length, 16 ft. 4 in. The bays centre at two feet, the doorway having a clear opening of 3 ft. 8 in., with a height of 8 ft. 3 in. from the floor level to the crown of the door-head arch. The latter is segmental, and on the under side feathered with rose-tipped cusps. The shield in the middle is modern, and so also (though doubtless a reproduction of the old) is much of the encrusted ornament which surmounts the door-head. The pattern of it is one of inter-twisted stems, branching into crockets on the upper side. The fenestration on either side of the doorway has a clear opening of 5 ft. 8½ in. high, with tracery (forming the outline of an ogival arch) and encrusted ornament in the heads to the depth of 35½ inches. An embattled transom runs through the head of the side bays, but is arrested in the two bays of the doorway. Beneath the fenestration the solid part of the screen is 4 ft. 3 in. high; each bay with tracery in the head to the depth of 11½ inches. The whole screen is a magnificent specimen of Perpendicular design. The parclose in the south aisle encloses the easternmost bay of the nave arcade. It measures 17 feet long from east to west, and then, turning at a right angle, with a length of 14 feet from north to south, joins the south wall of the aisle. Its height, exclusive of the stone platform on which it is mounted, is 8 ft. 10½ in. It has a doorway of 2 ft. 1½ in. wide on the north, and one of 1 ft. 11½ in. on the west. The bays or compartments vary from 18½ inches to 21 inches wide. The height of the fenestration is 54½ inches, with tracery in the heads to the depth of 25½ inches. The lower part of the screen is 46 inches high, and it is pierced, parclose fashion, by a band of pierced tracery, forming long panels 9½ inches high. For the rest, this parclose is similar in design to the rood-screen, only that the main shafts of the parclose are more handsomely treated with buttresses and tall, graceful gables, terminating in crocketed pinnacles. The cavetto of the lintel contains square Gothic pateras. Neither screen shows any trace of colour. No rood-entrance nor stair remains, but from the plan of the building it is evident that the former rood-loft could not have exceeded in length the width of the nave.

Fenny Bentley.—There is no structural division between nave and chancel, and the rood-screen has been repeatedly shifted backwards and forwards, but it is now standing approximately in its original position. Injured, but surviving the many dangers and vicissitudes through which it had to pass, it remained without repair until about 1848–50, when it underwent complete “restoration” (the vaulting being practically all renewed), and that very creditably done for the time. The screen is 18 ft 2 in. long by 9 ft. 4½ in. high. It consists of eight bays (centring 2 ft. 3¼ in.), whereof the two midmost go to make the doorway, which is 6 ft. 0¼ in. high to the crown of its four-centred arch, with a clear opening of 4 ft. 1½ in., protected by gates. The fenestration openings are four-centred, and measure 5 feet high from crown to cill, with tracery in the heads to the depth of 1 ft. 8¾ in., nine inches below the level of the vault-springing. The door-lintel has the left-hand spandril carved with a fox and a goose in his mouth; the right-hand spandril with a Gothic flower, not a rose. The lower part of the screen is 3 ft. high, the rail being ornamented with geometrical tracery. The ridiculous travesty of metal stanchions and saddle-bars, carried out in wood, ought to be got rid of as soon as possible. They may not deceive at the present day, but the danger is that the longer they are allowed to remain, the more they will tone down until they have acquired that specious air of antiquity which may enable them to pass for genuine, until some expert will detect the fraud, and perhaps be provoked on their account to call in question the authenticity of the whole screen into which they have become thus unwarrantably intruders. There is no vaulting at the top of the screen on the eastern side. The loft floor measures 57 inches from front to back, exclusive of the modern cresting on the front. There is no sign of any entrance to the rood-loft, but the stair was probably on the north side, in the wall which has now been rebuilt and converted into an arcade. The rood-screen exhibits a fully-matured phase of Perpendicular. It has been variously dated from 1460 to 1500. One local tradition declared it to have been erected by Thomas Beresford (of Agincourt fame) as a thank-offering after the Wars of the Roses. At any rate, it must have been already _in situ_ before 1512, when a chantry was founded by James Beresford, LL.D., and there being no aisle nor chapel to contain the altar, a parclose screen was erected round it in the south-east corner of the nave. The enclosure had its own flooring of encaustic tiles. Locally called “the cage,” it stood in its original place untouched until 1877, when, in the same year of his appointment to the rectory of Fenny Bentley, Rev. E. J. Hayton, with the proverbial officiousness of a new broom, nimbly cleared it aside. The only possible justification for this disturbance of a historic landmark is that it enables the beautiful rood-screen to be seen to greater advantage than it could have been while the other screen stood in front of it. The exact place where the parclose abutted on to the rood-screen is defined by a missing moulding and a light mark in the wood of the lower part of the bay immediately to the south of the entrance gates (see illustration). Subsequently the displaced parclose, incorporated with much new work, was set up, in one continuous length, between the modern north aisle of the nave and the modern north chapel. It now measures 14 ft. 8 in. long by 6 ft. 8 in. high, and consists of thirteen rectagonal compartments, with two different patterns of tracery in the head; eight of one pattern and five of the other.

Hathersage.—A small piece of carved oak tracery of Perpendicular style, being part of a screen originally in this church, was to be seen subsequently among the objects in the Lomberdale House Museum.

Hault Hucknall.—In 1875 there were kept in the vestry two fragments of oak tracery of Perpendicular design; placed, one upside down, with their two lower edges contiguous, so that the arched forms were made to appear like circles. They are thus depicted in the first volume of Cox’s _Derbyshire Churches_. Beside these, in the eighties of the nineteenth century, there were in the church tower several more pieces of tracery and at least one long beam; all of them portions, presumably, of former screenwork.

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 this parclose had been demolished, and parts of it made up with the rood-screen, which yet stood _in situ_, presenting an incongruous blend of Perpendicular and earlier woodwork. Even this, however, has since given place to a brand-new screen, and whatever still remains of the ancient screenwork is now embodied in the box-door in the west tower, as above described. The abolished rood-loft must have been approached from the south, for, although there are no longer any traces to be seen of it, in 1879 it was noted that “the squint from the Twyford quire is within the doorway of the old stairs leading to the rood-loft.”

Long Eaton.—“Within the chancel (now used as a vestry),” writes Rev. Dr. Cox in 1879, “is a piece of old oak carving, which was found, in 1868, used as a joist under the floor. It looks as if it had been part of the cornice of the rood-screen, and is carved with three four-leaved flowers and two heads. Its date is _circa_ 1460.” This carving was probably displaced and abused in the manner described, in 1731, when the church is known to have undergone re-pewing and other “repairs.” The ancient rood-loft extended from side to side of the nave, which is 20 ft. 6 in. wide—or rather it should be, if the whole building had not been tampered with and falsified in 1868.

Longford.—The eastern extremity of both the aisles was formerly partitioned off by carved oak parcloses to form chantry chapels, but in 1826 both these screens were demolished. “From the east wall of the nave, close to the north side of the chancel archway, projects” a stone corbel, which must have had some connection with the ancient rood arrangements, as a support either for the loft or the rood-beam.

Longstone.—“The east end of the south aisle is” [1877] “shut off by an old oak screen, so as to form a family pew. It has a finely carved cornice, and on the north side has the arms of Eyre impaling Stafford ... and over the door which forms the west entrance to the screen is the well-known crest of the Eyre family—an armed leg.”

Mackworth.—Some old oak carving, portions, apparently, of ancient screenwork, were made up into the wainscot at the back of a seat within the porch. The ancient rood-loft may be assumed not to have exceeded the width of the nave, _i.e._, 21 ft. 3 in.

Melbourne.—At the general restoration of the church in 1859–60, the rood-screen was so unsparingly treated as to make it difficult to tell what its original design could have been. It is 13 ft. 9 in. long, and stands at the entrance of the chancel in the eastern crossing. A drawing, published in the Anastatic Drawing Society’s volume for 1862, represents the church in the process of “restoration.” The screen, as there depicted, though it cannot have been even then in its original condition (having lost its vaulting, gates, and solid part at the bottom), differs considerably from the screen in its present state. It dated from the Perpendicular period, and consisted (as in fact it does still) of three bays, the middle one, for the entrance, being the largest. But the three main arches, which once constituted its most prominent feature, have since been replaced by obtuse chevrons, the ungainly massiveness of which is barely relieved by the ill-designed tracery underneath, or by a recent attempt to amend the bungling “restoration” of thirty years previously. It was in 1890, or thereabouts, that this unavailing re-restoration took place. The fact is that nothing can be done with Sir Gilbert Scott’s clumsy framework. To overlay it with applied ornament is only to emphasise its defects. There is but one satisfactory remedy, and that is to remove it altogether, and to replace it by something else fashioned on the beautiful flowing lines of the old Gothic design. The upper part contains eight pierced ornaments, 21½ inches in height from the crown of the two-centred arch to the base of the tracery, and 15 inches in width. Beyond these there is practically nothing of the original work left in the whole screen, which not only gives a very poor idea of what the majestic structure of the fifteenth century must have been, but also is in every way unworthy of the grandeur of its surroundings.

Mickleover.—Rev. R. R. Rawlins, in 1825, described the entrance from the nave as being “through a wooden arch,” near to which were the remains of a piscina. Whether this wooden arch represents the ancient rood-screen or not, it is impossible to tell. At any rate, the piscina shows that an altar must anciently have stood against the front of the screen.

Monyash.—Previously to the “restoration” of 1886–8, in the east wall of the north transept, at a height of about twelve feet from the ground, there projected a wide stone, which had served as the step of the doorway that led on to the top of the rood-loft. The outline of the doorway itself could be traced until the unhappy changes at the above date caused it to disappear.

Morley.—This is one of the few Derbyshire instances of which the plan might have admitted the ancient rood-loft being carried beyond the width of the nave across the aisles to the outer walls of the church. At any rate a piscina at the south-east corner of each aisle shows that there must have been an altar at the end of both aisles, and would also seem to imply that the aisles themselves were partitioned from the eastern chapels beyond by screens in a line with the chancel screen. As to the latter, the tradition in the parish in the time of Rev. S. Fox, who died in 1870, was that the screen, “rather handsome but decayed,” had stood in its place until within rather less than 50 or 60 years of the above date, _i.e._, until as late, perhaps, as 1820, when, not being thought well of by those in power at the time, it was taken down and “sold to a farmer in the village for a guinea or so to serve for a hen-roost or some such agricultural purpose.” However, according to another account, the rood-screen disappeared when the church was “repaired and beautified” in or about the year 1800.

Mugginton.—In addition to the parclose before-mentioned, “a good oak screen of Perpendicular tracery,” it is written in Cox’s _Churches of Derbyshire_, in 1877, “in fair preservation, with a door in the centre, divides the” south “aisle from the chapel. Originally this screen has been continued across the nave, so as to divide it from the chancel. Part of the base of this screen can still be seen in the supports of the pews; and a band of well-carved foliage round the pulpit has probably formed part of the cornice.” It is believed that this screen was broken up at the time of the ruthless “renovation,” _circa_ 1845.

Norbury.—The rood-screen had been fine, but was much mutilated in 1840, according to Sir Stephen Glynne. This screen has since been cheaply and very badly “restored.” It was originally vaulted, but is now made up in a new framework of rectagonal form. The original portions consist of the misused fenestration tracery. These number eight complete, and, over the doorway, two incomplete pierced ornaments, 29 inches deep, and averaging 19 inches wide. Upon some of them are traces of scarlet colour. They are of Perpendicular workmanship, and are all plain and smooth at the back. On the east side of the bottom part of the screen are eight of the original panel-heads of blind tracery, 14¼ inches wide by 10½ inches deep. There is no sign of the rood-stair. There being no chancel arch, there must have been ample space for the display of the rood on a beam across the chancel opening above the rood-loft, which would have extended across the width of the nave, 19 ft. 6 in. The eastern part of the chancel is panelled with oak, which might have come from the former rood-loft. Along the top of this wainscot runs what looks like a breast-summer, consisting of mouldings and a pierced band of vine ornament, to the length altogether of somewhat over 25 feet. The eastern end of the north aisle was formerly screened by a carved oak parclose, which, however, disappeared in 1841.

Ockbrook.—The screen having been brought hither from Wigston Hospital, Leicester, is not to be reckoned among the screens of Derbyshire.

Osmaston, a chapelry of Brailsford.—In 1834 it was noted that a small, plain screen of wood stood between nave and chancel. The entire fabric, however, was swept away in 1844–5, and rebuilt from the ground.

Radbourne.—A parclose, dating from the fifteenth century, if not earlier, formerly screened in the eastern portion of the north aisle.

Repton.—In the parish church, “traces of the stairway to the rood-loft across the chancel arch can still” (it was written in 1876) “be seen in the north-east angle of the south aisle, and it is probable that it was ... removed” in 1792, when the whole church underwent the ordeal of “beautifying” in accordance with the degraded taste of the period. It is, however, only just to the “restorers” of that date to mention that they did abolish the cumbrous blank walls which they found obstructing the openings between the aisles and the corresponding eastern chapels—walls that had, at some previous era of barbarism, been erected, there can be little doubt, in place of the original carved wood parcloses. It is on record that remains of ecclesiastical screenwork, with armorial devices, had become dispersed about the place, and, falling into private hands, were worked up into panelling for a dining-room, the wainscot of a summer-house, and other such-like profane uses.

Sandiacre.—“Up to 1855” (the quotation is from Cox’s _Churches of Derbyshire_), “there were some parts of the old rood-screen still remaining across the chancel arch of Decorated date. Some of this tracery has been used up in the reading-desk, and the pulpit has been made to correspond.” The length of the vanished rood-loft cannot have exceeded the width of the nave, namely, 22 ft. 9 in.

Sawley.—The oak rood-screen extends from side to side of the chancel, 18 ft. 5 in. Its height is 9 ft. 7 in. The heavy lintel is embattled and moulded. The doorway is a plain, rectagonal opening of 3 ft. 5½ in. wide, and without gates. On either side of it are five rectagonal compartments or lights, separated by muntins, and opening 51½ inches high, centred from 1 ft. 3 in. to 1 ft. 5½ in., with early Perpendicular tracery in the heads to the depth of 11 inches, smooth on the eastward surface. The solid part at the bottom consists of a deep, moulded rail and, below, rectagonal panelling without tracery. The westward face of each of the doorway jambs is buttressed, the buttress having a square base. The joinery as a whole is so very coarse and rude as to suggest the product of a rural workshop. The eastern portion of each aisle was formerly screened from the rest of the church by parcloses, which stood intact until 1838. The base of that section of the southern parclose which ran from east to west between the aisle and the nave, was removed on the plea of expediency not long ago by the present rector, who broke it up and caused the soundest parts of it to be turned into music desks for the choir boys in the chancel. The only portions, therefore, that now remain are the lower halves of the western section of either parclose running from north to south. That in the north aisle (which enclosed the chantry of Our Lady) extends over a length of 16 ft. 1½ in., with an interval of 2 ft. 8½ in. for the entrance. It consists of five compartments, and stands 4 ft. 3½ in. high, the buttressed muntins sawn off to the level of the fenestration cill. Below the rail is a horizontal panel of pierced tracery, 7 inches deep; and, below, panels with blind tracery in the heads to the depth of 7½ inches. What is left of the parclose in the south aisle extends over a length of 12 ft. 11 in., with an interval of 2 ft. 7¼ in. for the entrance. It consists of eight rectagonal compartments, and stands 4 ft. 3 in. high, the buttressed muntins being likewise cut off to the level of the cill. Both these parcloses are Perpendicular, and exhibit a much more refined standard of execution than does the rood-screen.

Smalley.—The mediæval church was destroyed in 1722, but in 1855, on the removal of the gallery in the modern building, there was discovered an ancient beam “enriched with deep, hollow chamfers,” in which pateras of Gothic leafage and other ornaments “were carved at intervals of about eighteen inches.” It was apparently of about the date 1460. This may have been only an unusually elaborate roof-principal; but, on the other hand, it might have been the old rood-beam or one of the timbers from the rood-loft or screen.

Spondon.—The rood-loft must have been of the same extent as the nave’s width, 23 ft. 2 in. A disastrous “beautifying” process in 1826–7, besides other irreparable damage, bodily removed the fifteenth century oak rood-screen which stood across the chancel arch opening of 15 ft. 2½ in. At the same time the steps of the rood-stair were cut away to make room for the flue-pipe of a stove. The entrance remains in the south-east corner of the north aisle. The doorway is 2 feet wide, and measures 6 ft. 10 in. in height to the apex of the depressed ogee of the door-head.

Staveley.—In 1710, Francis Bassano noted at the east end of the nave, above a family pew, “a large molding, being (the) upper beam of ye rood-loft, and on (the) wood is cut ye paternal coat armour of Frecheville (azure, a bend between six escallops, argent) held by an angel on his breast.” Further details are contained in a letter, dated October, 1816, which states that “the rood-loft at Staveley, which remained pretty entire since the Reformation, was taken down about twenty-five years ago”—which would have been _circa_ 1790—“to let more light into the church.”

Sudbury.—Two fragments of carving, from the former rood-screen, were described in 1877 as having then been recently affixed to the church chest.

Tideswell.—In 1845, Sir Stephen Glynne noted that “between the nave and chancel is a good wood screen of Perpendicular character.” It was “repaired” in 1882–3, the chisellings in the responds of the chancel arch furnishing the outline of the original form of the vanished upper portion. The lower part has been declared to be almost as ancient as the church itself; but for the rest, it has been so much altered and renovated that it is doubtful whether the gates or any considerable portion of the upper half of the screen as now existing is really authentic. The slender build of the screen has led to the supposition that it cannot have been designed at the outset to carry a rood-loft. That such, however, was added subsequently is clear from the existence of the rood-stair, which, though since removed, was standing in 1824. Its site was the western side of the north corner of the chancel arch. It must have been a structure unusually conspicuous compared with others built for the same purpose. It was of stone, and occupied a space six feet square. The entrance was from the south, and gave access to a small newel staircase, the doorway measuring about 4 ft. 2 in. in height by 22 inches in width. Some remains of it, lying in the vicarage garden, were identified by the late Rev. Prebendary Andrew, and described by him in the fifth volume of the _Journal of the Derbyshire Archæological Society_ (published in 1883). What the ancient rood-loft was like is not recorded. In the year 1724 a faculty was obtained by one Samuel Eccles to take down an old loft (whether the mediæval rood-loft or not it is impossible to tell) then existing over the chancel, and to transfer it to the tower for the use and advantage of the singers; and at the same time to erect a loft for his own use over the entry into the chancel. The transported loft is believed to have occupied its western position until about 1820, when it was removed altogether, a new gallery being erected in its room. Beside the rood-screen itself, wooden parcloses must have divided the chantry chapels in the transepts from the nave and from the rest of the church. At any rate a quantity of pieces of ancient wood-carving were to be seen loose about the church in 1824, and “cart loads” of them are said to have been removed in 1825 on the occasion of the re-pewing of the building. A subsequent vicar, Rev. Prebendary Andrew (1864–1900), set to work to restore as much as he could. Some pieces of woodwork he rescued from various misuses within the church, others from private possession in the parish. A length of carving that had been cut in two and turned into bookstands, as well as two fragments of screenwork, open tracery of great delicacy and beauty, he set up in the Lady Chapel; while a third piece of tracery-work he placed in the middle compartment of the communion table. “The parclose of the De Bower chapel has recently”—it was written in 1877—“been restored in exactly the same position that it previously occupied.”

Weston-on-Trent.—Rev. Dr. Cox in 1879 remarked on “the north aisle being screened off by a parclose from the rest of the church.” The length of the ancient rood-loft must have been the same as the width of the nave, 18 ft. 5 in.

Wilne.—The rood-screen which occupies the chancel arch is of simple Perpendicular workmanship. It is 18 ft. 4 in. long by 7 ft. 9 in. high. There are ten bays, five on either side, arched. The lintel is plain, without any kind of ornamentation applied, and there are no gates. A small stone staircase, now walled up, to southwards of the chancel arch, commemorates the entrance into the ancient rood-loft.

Youlgreave.—The churchwardens’ accounts, though not dating back earlier than the beginning of the sixteenth century, contain some interesting particulars about the rood-screen. In 1604, “the chancel gates were boarded over,” and later in the same year occurs an item “for making the partition betwixt the church and the chancell.” In 1661, a small sum was paid “for 3 hinges for ye chancell gates,” which is evidence that the rood-screen, howsoever sadly disfigured, with its doors, was yet in existence at the above date. “There is now”—it was written in 1877—“no screen across the chancel arch, though it is in contemplation to replace one, modelled on the mutilated remains of the lower part of the old one, of Perpendicular design, which were removed at the time of the ‘restoration’ (of 1869–73, by Mr. R. Norman Shaw), but have been carefully preserved.” At about the end of the eighteenth century, the fine old parclose erected round the eastern part of the south aisle was removed.

Finally, I desire, as in duty bound, to acknowledge my obligations to the Rev. Dr. Cox, whose monumental work on _The Churches of Derbyshire_ has been of inestimable service to me; to various writers, from whom I have borrowed, in _The Reliquary_ and in the _Journal of the Derbyshire Archæological Society_; to Rev. W. W. M. Kennedy for important particulars concerning diocesan visitations; to Arthur Cox, Esq., of Spondon Hall, for valuable introductions; and, lastly, to all those clergy who have kindly allowed me to take photographs and measurements in the churches committed to their charge.

PLANS OF THE PEAK FOREST

By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.

Derbyshire is fortunate in possessing a considerable number of plans of the great tract of the Forest of the Peak, one of which is of late Elizabethan date, and most of the remainder of the days of Charles I. They are in safe custody in that great national storehouse in Chancery Lane termed the Public Record Office. So far as we are aware, they have never hitherto attracted the attention of any students of Derbyshire history, or of any topographical writers. At all events, nothing has hitherto been printed about them, although in many ways they are of superlative interest.

George, Earl of Shrewsbury, the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, so celebrated in history as the custodian of Mary Queen of Scots, was taken again into the favour of Queen Elizabeth in his old age in 1587; he died in 1590. Some time between these two dates the Earl was permitted to purchase a portion of the Longdendale district of the Peak Forest, which was formally disafforested for the purpose. In connection with this purchase, a large quaint map of the whole of the three great divisions of the forest was prepared, on which are marked large parallelograms, painted vermilion, where there were pasturage rights. On the Ashop and Edale section of the forest four contiguous large patches of vermilion are shown; these are lettered “quenes farmes in Ashop and Edall.” Immediately to the west of these is another large parallelogram, divided into five by parallel lines, and by the side of this is “Edall the Quenes ma^{tes} Farmes are devided into Fyve vacaries.” To the north of these pasturage grounds there are large uncoloured spaces marked “Greate Waste,” and the same term is repeated on a smaller patch to the south-east.

The section on the north-west of this plan, termed Longdendale, has “Greate Waste” marked in various places over by far the greater portion of the area. There is, however, a small vermilion parallelogram between the towns of Glossop and Hayfield, the herbage of which pertained to the Earl of Shrewsbury. A larger space in this section of the forest is marked “The Herbage of Chynley, otherwise called Maidstonfeld. Godfrey Bradshawe and others farm’s thereof.”

The third or southern section of the forest, called the Champion or Champayne, has fully half of its area coloured red in somewhat irregular patches. The largest space in the centre is lettered “The Severalles of the Champyon,” and within this is a smaller area termed “The Inner Severalles.” Attached to the larger space at different angles are other areas marked “Halsted Harbage,” “Grene,” “Ferfeld Harbage,” “Tyddeswall Harbage,” and “The Herbage of Boughtedge, Tenauntes and Fermers thereof, viz.: Thomas Lee, Henry Bagshawe, and George Thornehill.” There are also two nearly adjacent small patches of which the names are not clear.

It thus becomes evident that it was only the townships or hamlets of the Champayne division of the forest which had any claim to general pasturage rights.

The highly interesting feature of this late Elizabethan plan is the series of little outline pictures illustrative of the buildings of the chief places within the forest district. Each of these is here given in exact outline after the original, except that there is a dash of colour on the roofs of all the buildings, which throws them into better relief. Interesting as these are from an art point of view, they have to be accepted with some caution as accurate in a topographical sense. It is not, for instance, possible to imagine but that the sketch of the Peak Castle was somewhat imaginary; nor can the sketches of some of the churches be made to fit with the extant fabrics. It should also be remarked that this plan is a good deal blemished in places by having been roughly divided into three parts, with the result that several fragments are now missing, and the sketches of Castleton and Hayfield are somewhat mutilated.[77]

[77] When the list of the Duchy of Lancaster Maps and Plans was recently drawn up and printed at the Public Record Office, the fact that these three portions belonged to the same map was not recognised; they are to be found under the respective numbers 7, 37, and 44.

The view of Glossop may certainly be taken to prove that the old town had its houses arranged in irregular blocks round the large church as a centre (1). The parish church of Glossop was completely rebuilt between 1831 and 1853; it is not, therefore, possible to say how far the outline in the map is accurate. It is, however, fair to assume, with regard to the churches as well as the houses, that the artist made some effort to represent the reality, or otherwise the series of little pictures would hardly have had so great a variety.

With regard to Hayfield church, the like difficulty arises, for the old building was demolished in 1836; and here again it is difficult to believe that the delineator drew this form of a church out of his own imagination (2). In this case a portion of the hamlet on the left-hand side has been torn off.

The third pictured town in this division is Mellor, and in this instance, too, the church was entirely rebuilt at the beginning of last century, save for the western tower (3). A proof is here afforded of some measure of accuracy, for in this case the western tower is represented in its right place, and not as rising from the centre of the building, as shown in the cases of Glossop and Hayfield. There are, also, traces at the top of Mellor tower of its having formerly supported a small spire, as is here shown.

In the second division of the forest, viz., that of Ashop and Edale, there are two of these township pictures, viz., Castleton and Hope. Castleton is, unfortunately, mutilated; the parts to the left hand of the castle are missing. As to Peak Castle, it is fairly obvious that some effort, however poor, has been made to reproduce the actual buildings (4). The old Norman keep of the time of Henry II. is evidently intended to be shown in the centre of the background. The fore-part shows the later substantial enclosing of the inner bailey, probably of Edwardian date, most of which has long ago disappeared. Perhaps the most interesting detail of this, the oldest picture of the celebrated fortress, is the building within the bailey which is surmounted by a cross, and is, therefore, clearly a detached chapel. There are two or three entries in the record history of the Peak Castle which have not yet been made public, which refer to this chapel as in use in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As to the church in the town below, it is difficult to offer any conjecture as to how the drawing can coincide with the present remains of the ancient church. The draftsman seems to have had very exaggerated ideas as to the size of the south porch.

With regard to the picture of Hope, little more can be said than that here again it is very difficult to fit in this outline drawing with the fabric of the church as it now exists, except that the western tower still bears a low broached spire (5).

The third, or Champayne, division of the forest has pictures of four towns, viz., those of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Fairfield, Wormhill, and Tideswell.

The various buildings that are grouped round the large church of Chapel-en-le-Frith are sufficient to show that this old market town was a place of some importance (6). In this case the church was rebuilt throughout in the early part of last century, and there is very little of historical record or other remains to tell us anything as to its original proportions. There is, however, one gruesome record which apparently shows that its size was considerably greater than that of its successor; for in 1648 fifteen hundred prisoners of the Scottish army defeated at Preston were confined within its walls when being marched to London. They were kept in the church for over a fortnight, and it is not surprising to learn that upwards of fifty died within its walls. The outline drawing seems to suggest that the church was of cruciform shape, with a tower and spire in the centre. The only indication of a window is the large circular one of the south transept over the porch; it is exceedingly unlikely that the draftsman produced such a window as this from his own imagination.

The destruction of the old churches in the Peak district was sadly extensive about a hundred years ago. Another of the victims of the then prevalent idea of running up a snug, cheap building, when the old fabric had got into a state of dilapidation, was the church of Fairfield, near Buxton (7). It was rebuilt in the years 1838–9, and very little is known as to its original condition.

Wormhill, again, suffered after a like fashion, though at a later date (8). The present church was rebuilt in 1863–4.

Tideswell is, perhaps, the most puzzling of all these pictures. Those who know the singularly fine church of fourteenth century date, with large chancel, transepts, double-aisled nave, and western tower, will find it impossible to reconcile the outlined drawing with the church as it really exists (9).

We now come to the consideration of a considerably later series of maps, which are done roughly to scale, of various townships within the Peak forest. Derbyshire is exceptionally fortunate in having such a series of carefully-preserved early plans. A list of the records of the Duchy of Lancaster preserved at the Public Record Office was printed in 1901. One section of this list is headed, “Maps and Plans”; they consist principally of those made in the elucidation of the claims of parties in disputes pending in the Court of the Duchy Chamber. The three to which we have just referred are of the end of Elizabeth’s reign, but otherwise they are almost entirely of various seventeenth century dates. There are 116 items calendared as maps and plans at the Public Record Office, of which Derbyshire has a large share, viz., 32, or more than a quarter of the whole number. The reason for the making of all these Derbyshire plans, save the three already mentioned, was the enclosing or disafforesting of the Peak.

During the reign of Charles I. many unhappy efforts were made to raise funds for the Crown by re-establishing the almost extinct forest courts. This was chiefly the work of Noy, the King’s Attorney-General, styled by Carlyle “that invincible heap of learned rubbish.” The revival of these courts, with all their costly and obsolete formalities, accompanied by the imposition of absurdly heavy fines, created bitter resentment wherever it was carried out, as in Surrey, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire, and was, beyond doubt, one of the causes that led to the Commonwealth trouble. In other parts of England where there were royal forests, after the reimposition of forest law had been so strenuously resisted, another line of action was adopted. Attempts were made, occasionally with success, to secure money for the Crown by the enclosure of forests, the Crown claiming a half, or thereabouts, of the land, and selling them as soon as a title was gained. This action led to continuous disturbance in Duffield, in the south of Derbyshire, where the resistance made to enclosure by the commoners and tenants was eventually successful.