Chapter V: Part 5

Those who make a careful study of the old royal forest districts of England, should always refer to the details respecting the tremendous storm that swept over England in the winter of 1222, which are to be found in the Close and Patent Rolls of that date. Trees were overthrown in every part of the kingdom in such vast numbers that the old customs, whereby, for the most part, wind-fallen boughs or root-fallen trees were the perquisites of forest ministers, were suspended, and special writs were issued to the authorities directing the sale of all this overthrown timber with a return of the proceeds. Writs to this effect were forwarded to the verderers and foresters of the Forest of Sherwood; to the like officials of the enclosures or parks within Sherwood; to Maud de Caux, then a widow, as keeper of the Forest of Sherwood and of Clay; and to Philip Marc, as “keeper of the parks of Sherwood.” The title of “keeper of Sherwood and Clay” was a survival of the time when the districts, under the then cruelly severe forest laws, had been much extended by Henry II. and John. At that time a considerable part of the Clay division in the north-east of the shire, as well as in the northern part of Hatfield above Worksop, had been declared forest; but the great Charter of John, and the forest charter of the boy-king, Henry III., restored these parts to the common lord of the land. The earliest extant perambulation of Sherwood, of the year 1232, closely coincides with the still more precise perambulation of the year 1300. The forest was at that time, roughly speaking, twenty miles in length by eight in breadth. At the one extremity was the county town of Nottingham, and at another was Mansfield, whilst Worksop was close to the northern boundary. In other words, the forest contained approximately 100,000 acres, or about a fifth of the whole shire. These bounds were still maintained according to a perambulation of 30 Henry VIII., but the forest began to be broken up before the close of the sixteenth century.

Maud de Caux died in the year after the great storm, and as the office of keeper was hereditary, according to the charter of the Earl of Morton, she was succeeded by her son John de Birkin, and he in his turn by his son Thomas de Birkin. In 1231 the office came to Robert de Everingham, in right of his wife, Isabel, daughter and heiress of Thomas. His grandson, Robert de Everingham the younger, forfeited his keepership in 1286, owing to the grievous abuse of his position as keeper of the King’s deer; he was imprisoned for some time in Nottingham gaol for venison trespass. After his disgrace, the position of chief forester or keeper of Sherwood was granted to various persons of high position as a mark of royal favour, but it was no longer hereditary and usually held at will.

Among the vast store of forest proceedings in the Public Record Office, in Chancery Lane, is an exceptional amount pertaining to this important Nottingham forest. Some attempts have been made at analysing this information, and in occasionally setting forth certain details; but the story of Sherwood Forest yet remains to be written, and if done in any satisfactory fashion, might be readily extended to several volumes of the size of the one in which this essay appears. It would not be difficult to make such a record full of interesting and valuable information from end to end.

The most fascinating of these records is the full story of the various forest offences which came to light when the Forest Pleas or Eyres, presided over by the King’s justices, were held at Nottingham. These courts, originally supposed to be held every seven years, were in reality summoned at much longer and fitful intervals. The earliest of these of which details are extant was held in 1251, when the forest was divided into three keepings or wards, each of which had their own verderers, foresters and agisters, the last of whom regulated the pasturage and the pannage of pigs permitted within the ward. At the Eyre of 1267, several hundred vert offences were brought before the court for damage to the growing timber. The most serious of these presentments was with regard to the Abbot of Rufford, who was charged with having felled four hundred and eighty-three oaks for building purposes since the last Eyre; but the abbot was able to plead successfully a charter of Henry II. as justifying his action. It does not appear that the justices held another Forest Court until 1286–87. It was then set forth that in the previous year there had been a grievous outbreak of murrain amongst the deer, both red and fallow, from which three hundred and fifty had perished. On this occasion Sir William de Vescy and his two brother-justices laid down a variety of special injunctions to be observed in the future administration of Sherwood. Among these it may be mentioned that any dweller in the forest felling a green tree was to be attached (summoned) for the next attachment court, there to find bail till the next Eyre, and to pay the price to the verderers; for a second offence he was to be dealt with in a like manner, but for a third offence he was to be imprisoned at Nottingham, and there be kept until delivered by the King or a justice of the forest. Any one dwelling outside the forest cutting any kind of green wood, was at once to be committed to prison until delivered by the warrant of the King or forest justice; but for a third offence he was also to forfeit his horses and cart, or his oxen and waggon.

Among other injunctions, it was laid down that the verderers were to assemble every forty days, in accordance with the charter of the forest, to hold Attachment Courts for vert and venison, and other small pleas. There is abundant evidence that this Forty-Day Court, also known as the Attachment Court, and sometimes as a “Swaynmote,” was held by the verderers with much regularity for a long period in Sherwood. These courts were usually held at four different centres, viz., at Calverton, Edwinstowe, Linby, and Mansfield, on successive days of the same week. The Roll of 1292–93 shows that green oak was usually valued at 6d., a dry oak at 4d., a sapling from 1d. to 3d., and a stubb, or dry trunk of a pollarded tree at 2d. These local courts also took cognisance of beast trespassing, the usual fine being 1d. for a straying cow or stirk, and 3d. for five sheep.

The Close Rolls bear abundant evidence of the generosity of successive sovereigns in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with royal gifts of both timber and venison from the stores of Sherwood. We may take as an example of such royal gifts those made by Henry III. from different parts of Sherwood between the years 1231 and 1234. The venison during this period included three roes to Robert de Lexington; three bucks and four does to the Earl of Huntingdon; five bucks and twenty does to the Bishop of Carlisle for his park at Melbourne; three bucks to the Dean of St. Martin’s, London; six bucks to Walter de Evermuth; two bucks and eight does to Hugh Despenser; a buck to John, son of Geoffrey; two harts to John de Stuteville; two bucks to Robert de Hareston; seven bucks to the Bishop of Carlisle; five bucks to William of York; three bucks to William Bardolph; five bucks and a hart to William de Albini; and ten bucks to the Bishop of Lincoln.

During the same period the gifts of wood included five oaks to Gilbert Spigurnel, to make a mill; five oaks and thirty tie-beams to the chaplain of Hugh de Burgh; thirty oaks to the Priory of Lenton, for the works of their church; twenty oaks to Brian de Insula; five lime trees to the Franciscan Friars of Nottingham to make their stalls; thirty oaks to the Dean of St. Martin’s, London, for timber for his chancel at Elm; forty rafters to Brother Robert de Dyva; ten oaks to Robert Lupus; and fifteen oaks to William de Albini, for making rafters.

In connection with timber, it may be mentioned that a great provision of wood was made from Sherwood early in the year 1316, when the Parliament was held at Lincoln. The Archbishop of York’s great wood at Blidworth was at that time in the King’s hands, as the see was vacant, and Edward II. ordered the forest-keeper to deliver to the sheriff fifty leafless oaks out of that wood, to be used for making charcoal, and for boards for trestle tables. Thirty oaks from parts of the forest near the Trent were to be despatched to Nottingham for firewood in the King’s hall against the ensuing Parliament, and thirty more for the King’s chambers. It should always be remembered in connection with woods in private ownership within royal forests, that there was no power of felling timber or cutting wood, save for immediate personal use, without a direct warrant. Thus, in 1316, it is entered on the Close Rolls that Edward II. authorised Ralph de Crumbwell to fell and sell as he pleased twenty acres of his wood at Lambley within Sherwood Forest, as a compensation for his losses when engaged in the King’s service in Scotland.

A particularly interesting and exceptional use of the excellent timber of this forest occurs on the Close Rolls towards the end of the year 1323–24, when an expedition was about to be undertaken into the Duchy of Aquitaine. The Sheriff of Nottingham and his carpenters were instructed to procure as many oaks and other suitable trees out of the forest, as were necessary for the construction of nine springalds and a thousand quarels. Springalds were military engines of the catapult kind, whilst quarels were a heavy form of arrows with iron heads which these engines discharged.

Continuing a brief account of some of the more important circumstances with regard to the timber of Sherwood, it may be mentioned that at the Forest Pleas of 1334, the Roll of amercements of persons convicted of vert trespass at the Attachment Courts at more than fourpence (which could only be amerced at the Eyre), embraced upwards of seven hundred and fifty trespassers, varying in value from sixpence for green boughs or dry trunks, to two shillings for a single oak. These values had been paid to the verderers at the time when the Attachment Court had been held; the additional fines imposed by the justices varied from one to two shillings. This list of vert trespasses is after all not a very serious one, when it is remembered that it was about half a century since the last Eyre had been held. In the following century the supreme courts of the justices were held with almost equal rarity, and by the time of Henry VII. the complaints as to the gradual destruction of the oaks of Sherwood, both young and old, became numerous.

The general custom which prevailed in most of England’s royal forests, of the tenants within the jurisdiction being permitted to use wood for the repair or rebuilding of their houses, for the construction of hedges, and for the purposes of fuel, obtained throughout Sherwood. At the last regular Eyre, held in 1538, the justices made two special orders affecting the forest timber, namely, that no hedgebote nor firebote was to be taken by the tenants themselves, but only by the deliverance of the woodward, nor any housebote without the deliverance of the keeper as well as the woodward; and in the second place it was ordered that no one was to fell any even of his own wood for any intent “without the especiall lycense of the kynge his highnesse, or the justice of the foreste, and that none from hencesforthe do take aine woode for bleaching.”

An exact inventory of the trees of the most valuable part of this forest was taken in the year 1609. There were at that time 21,009 oak trees in Birkland, and 28,900 in Bilhagh; but the majority of them are described as being past maturity. In August 1624 a most destructive forest fire occurred, arising from some carelessness in the preparation of charcoal. This fire spread rapidly over an area four miles in length by one and a half in breadth. The abatement of the wind, and the trenches dug by a whole army of men with spades, picks, and shovels, happily checked the fire just as it was approaching the great wood which then stretched from Mansfield to Nottingham.

Both trees and venison suffered severely during the disturbances that preceded the establishment of the Commonwealth. During the days of Oliver Cromwell, and with still greater frequency at subsequent dates, a considerable number of Sherwood oaks were felled for the navy. Various other grants for exceptional purposes on a large scale contributed to the rapid reduction of the forest timber. Thus, in 1680, the inhabitants of Edwinstowe were permitted to fell 200 oaks in Birkland and Bilhagh for the repair of their parish church, which had been seriously damaged by the fall of the spire. In 1686, the oak trees of this part of the forest, including a number that were hollow or decayed, only totalled 37,316, and by 1790 they were still further reduced to 10,117.

“From 1683 onwards, the area of the forest was being constantly curtailed; and in that year 1270 acres out of the hays of Bilhagh and the White Lodge, were sold to the Duke of Kingston to be enclosed within his park of Thoresby. At the beginning of the next century, about 3000 acres of the previous open forest were impaled to protect the deer under the auspices of the Duke of Newcastle, who was their keeper; this was called the New Park, and is now known as Clumber Park. Between 1789 and 1796 inclusive, Acts were passed for the enclosure of Arnold Forest, Basford Forest, Sutton in Ashfield Forest, Kirkby in Ashfield Forest, and Lenton and Radford Forest, whereby 8248 acres were brought into cultivation. When Major Rooke published his interesting _Sketch of the Ancient and Present State of Sherwood Forest_ in 1799, the parts of the forest that still remained to the Crown were the hays of Birkland and Bilhagh, which had a total extent of 1487 acres.”[46]

A most notable use of the grand oaks of Sherwood occurred in the days of Charles II., when the largest and most substantial of the beams used in the construction of the new St. Paul’s, by Sir Christopher Wren, came from this district. The papers at Welbeck Abbey include a letter from the great architect, of April 4, 1695, addressed to the steward of the Duke of Newcastle. Therein he states the measurements of the “great Beames” which he then required. They were to be “47 ft. long, 13 inches at the small end, of growing timber and as near as can be without sap.”

Though the glories of Sherwood as a vast open forest land have long since passed away, there is still much fine timber to be noted on the old forest stretches of Birkland and Bilhagh, as well as a few noble groups of ancient oaks, as at Haywood, near Blidworth. Within, too, the present five deer parks of the county, all of which were within the forest confines in ancient days--namely, the parks of Thoresby, Welbeck, Rufford, Wollaton, and Annesley--portions of the ancient forest timber undoubtedly remain. In some cases the relics of the grand old oaks are but shattered fragments of their original magnificence. The Methuselah of the forest, the Greendale oak in Welbeck Park, would have perished long ago had it not been for the extreme care taken to prop and bind up its shattered members; but it still possesses considerable vitality. In 1724 the great gap hollowed through its centre by age and decay was cut away to such a height and width that “a carriage and six, with cocked-hat coachman on the box, drove through the tree with the bride of the noble owner; three horsemen riding abreast were able to pass through, a feat which has been often accomplished.” Several of the greater and more venerable oaks in other parts of the forest have had fanciful names assigned to them, perpetuated during recent years by means of picture postcards; but these titles are for the most part of recent origin. Such are the Major Oak, the Parliament Oak, and the Shambles Oak.

The deer of Sherwood were of three kinds--red, fallow, or roe. The roe deer seem never to have been numerous, and they died out at a comparatively early date, not finding sufficient quietude owing to the nearness of Nottingham, Mansfield, and other fairly populous places. These small timid deer require a considerable amount of rarely-disturbed covert, and Sherwood, notwithstanding its extent, was intersected by a frequency of roads and byroads. At the Eyre of 1288, there was a single presentment for killing a roebuck.

The red deer were undoubtedly indigenous to this and other parts of England, and roamed at large throughout the forest. The royal gifts of Sherwood deer made by Henry III. and the first three Edwards, consisted mainly of fallow deer; but it need not be considered from this that the red deer were few or far between, because the fallow deer were so much more easily killed or taken alive within the parks where they were sustained. The majority of cases of venison, as recorded in the presentments at the different Eyres, were also concerned with fallow deer; but a fair number of venison transgressors, particularly in the case of those of good position, were summoned for hunting the wild red deer. Thus, in 1334, Lord John Grey was found running a herd of hinds with six greyhounds at Bestwood, of which he killed two; and at the same court Henry Curzon of Breadsall was fined for killing a hind at Clipstone. At various different dates in the fourteenth century, royal releases from prison were granted to offenders who had been caught hunting the red deer. It may here be noted, as it is often forgotten, that the terms for red deer are harts and hinds, whilst the fallow deer are described as bucks and does. The survival at the present day in this county of eleven public-houses which bear the sign of the White Hart is an indirect evidence of the former number of the wild deer; there is also a single instance of a White Hind. This may appear to be a confusion of terms, but from the earliest days there were occasional instances of white harts and hinds, as at the present time among red deer.[47]

The fallow deer were as a rule kept within parks, though, of course, they naturally strayed at times into the open parts of the forest. The two oldest of the hays or parks of Sherwood were those of Clipstone and Bestwood, and there were also those of Birkland, Linby, and Welby, as early as the days of Henry III.

Among venison offenders it was not at all unusual to find the secular clergy. Thus, at the Eyre of 1334, the rector of Annesley and the vicar of Edwinstowe were among the culprits, and fully a score of other beneficed offenders were presented at different dates. Popular notions, encouraged by more or less scurrilous ballads, have long ago marked down the monks and canons of the religious orders as prime offenders in this respect; but the forest Rolls, which cannot lie, in Sherwood as elsewhere, prove the very small basis upon which such charges rest. “Throughout the length and breadth of England, in the extant forest documents extending over several centuries, only four or five charges of venison trespass against the religious have been found, and about a like number for the receipt of venison, or the harbouring of forest offenders. It is not to be understood that the examination has been quite thorough, save of a certain number of forests; but it is highly improbable that the charges against monks or canons regular, if the search was exhaustive, could not be counted on the fingers of both hands. And yet at the same time the charges against rectors, vicars, or parochial chaplains, and the heavy fines, sometimes exceeding a whole year’s income, are fairly common. No charges have been noticed against the monks of Rufford or the canons of Newstead, though they were in the very midst of Sherwood; and yet there was hardly a parish pertaining to that forest whose vicar or rector was not, at some time, convicted of deer-slaying with bow and arrows, or with greyhounds.”[48]

When the sixteenth century is reached, definite statistics can usually be found as to the number of deer in the various royal forests of England. Henry VIII. appointed a commission in 1531, to view and certify the number of the deer in the forest and parks of Sherwood. The red deer at that date numbered 4280, and the fallow deer 1131. The red deer ranged throughout the forest, with the exception of some 200 in Bestwood Park. The fallow deer were within the four parks of Bestwood, Clipstone, Nottingham, and Thorney. Another less detailed return of 1538 of all the deer in the King’s forests and parks north of the Trent, gives the number of red deer in Sherwood Forest as about 1000; in Bestwood Park, 700 fallow and 140 red; in Clipstone, 60 fallow and 20 red; in Gringley, 150 fallow.

Queen Elizabeth, in 1599, granted the keepership of the forest district of Thorneywood, to the north of Nottingham, to John Stanhope, with licence to hunt, chase, and kill the deer, provided he always found a hundred head for the use of the Queen.

A considerable amount of detailed information with regard to the rapidly lessening area of Sherwood Forest, from this date down to 1793, is to be found in the _Fourteenth Report of Woods and Forests_ which was issued at the latter date. In 1616, it was reported that there were 1263 red deer in Sherwood Forest, in addition to those in Thorneywood; another estimate of 1635 made the total 1367. A very large number of the royal deer not unnaturally disappeared during the Commonwealth days. In 1661, considerable expenses were incurred by the transporting of both red and fallow deer from Germany to restock the forests of Sherwood and Windsor.

Charles II., in 1662, did his best to revive the forest laws of Sherwood, and appointed his faithful friend William, Earl of Mansfield and Marquis of Newcastle (afterwards known as the loyal duke) to act as Lord Chief Justice in Eyre. The business before this revived Forest Court was so complicated, and required so much legal investigation, that, though opened at Mansfield in February 1662–63, the proceedings were not concluded until 1676; they provided a right royal harvest for the lawyers and attorneys. Claims to special privileges were put forward by a great variety of persons, including the Archbishop of York and divers others, such as Sir George Savile of Rufford and Lord Byron of Newstead, who had succeeded to properties wrenched from monastic hands. Hosts of minor claimants came from all parts of the forest and its surroundings, pleading privileges that pertained in old days to particular townships or parishes. Some of these humbler folk were unable to resist the attractions of the game as they traversed the old forest grounds; thus one Thomas Cotton, a blacksmith of Edwinstowe, was convicted of shooting a hart when actually journeying to attend this court. He was fined 40s., and had to obtain a bondsman for £40 for his good conduct during the twelve months.

In 1708 a strongly worded petition was drawn up at Rufford by representative gentlemen of the north of the county, addressed to the Crown, complaining of the grievous and almost intolerable burden under which the landowners laboured by reason of the increase during late years of the red deer in the Forest of Sherwood. They complained that so many of the woods had been granted or given away by the Queen’s predecessors, that but little harbour remained for the deer in the forest, and that the deer in consequence were scattered about in the county eating up corn and grass; that their tenants in severe weather had often to watch all night to keep the deer off; that their servants were terrified by new keepers, who threaten them if they so much as set a little dog at the deer. At the same time another general petition to the like effect obtained 400 influential signatures. It was therein stated that the red deer had recently increased from 300 to 900, and that their chief depredations were carried on “in the district called Hatfield and the whole district of the Clay,” which were parts of the county outside the forest limits. These petitions met with no favour at the hands of the Crown; it was argued that to attempt to stint the number of deer through Parliament would be detracting from the Queen’s liberties and rights.

The forest, however, was far from being a source of profit during Anne’s reign. There were four well-paid “forest keepers” and four “deputy forest rangers”; the winter hay for the deer averaged £100 a year; whilst £1000 a year was granted to maintain the deer and the new park at Clumber, and to hunt with two horsemen, forty couple of hounds, eleven horses, and four grooms.

Reports presented to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 1793 showed that there were then no deer in the forest save in Thorney Woods, of which Lord Chesterfield was keeper. But evidence was given to the effect that there were a great many deer in Birkland and Bilhagh until about 1770, when they were killed off, with the assistance of the inhabitants, by the Dukes of Newcastle and Kingston, and in a short time the value of the forest farms had materially increased, and the wheat fields no longer needed to be guarded by horns in the daytime and by fires at night.

Though the glories of Sherwood as a vast open forest district have long since passed away, several noble parks occupy some of its choicest portions. Five of these parks are stocked with deer--namely, Thoresby (Earl Manvers), Welbeck (Duke of Portland), Rufford (Lord Savile), Wollaton (Lord Middleton), and Annesley (J. P. Chaworth Musters, Esq.). The first two of these have herds of red as well as of fallow deer. It is quite possible that some of these may fairly claim to be the descendants of those which used to roam at will through the woods and glades of old Sherwood Forest in medieval days.

ROODS, SCREENS, AND LOFTS IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

BY AYMER VALLANCE

ARNOLD.--William Stretton, writing about 1820, noted:--“The Gothic screen of oak is still remaining. The corbels and holes for the timbers to support the rood-loft still remain, with the stone staircase in the south-east angle.” The screen disappeared at the “restoration” in 1877. The rood-stairs survive, concealed behind the pulpit.

ATTENBOROUGH.--The rood-stair, of which only a part remains, was contained in the south pier of the chancel arch. The door intended for issue onto the rood-loft is now blocked, but the entrance at the bottom, with a cambered head, is situated in the north-east corner of the south aisle.

AVERHAM (October 1911).--A somewhat plain example of a late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century screen, rectangular in construction, stands in the chancel opening. Its total length is 16 ft. 9 in. by 9 ft. high. It comprises thirteen compartments of average centring of 1 ft. 2½ in., _i.e._ five compartments on either hand of the doorway. The latter has a clear opening of 3 ft. 5½] in., and comprises three compartments, their two muntins being cut off by the horizontal door-head. The wainscot is 4 ft. 1 in. high, with head-tracery to the depth of 9 inches, consisting of one continuous run supported by four vertical mouldings, making five panels on each side of the doorway. The south section of this tracery appears to be genuine, but the north section is all modern except 14 inches’ length immediately north of the doorway. All the flat panelling of the wainscot is modern. From the middle rail to the cord-line measures 44 in., the tracery in the head of the fenestration being 9 in. deep. This tracery is flat on the eastward face. The ornament attached to the west front of the lintel is modern.

BALDERTON.--“A most beautiful, richly moulded Perpendicular oak screen (_circa_ 1475), having a figure of a monk with his arms crossed, and a globe below his foot, on the western face; and another of the Virgin and Child on the eastern face.” The screen is rectangular in construction, and comprises eight compartments, the two middle ones of which go to form the doorway.

BEAUVALE (Carthusian Priory).--From the foundation of the monastery in 1343, the church kept its original plan, an aisleless parallelogram, unchanged. The width of the nave, 27 ft., was, therefore, the length of the transverse screens, which disappeared at, or after, the surrender on 18th July 1539. “No trace of the pulpitum,” write Rev. A. Du Boulay Hill and Mr. Harry Gill, “can be seen in the standing walls,” nor did the excavations in 1908 disclose any pulpitum foundations.

BECKINGHAM.--The will of Robert Hall, dated 28th May 1529, contains the clause: “_do et lego fabrice crucifixorii de_ Bekyngham,” 15s.; and William Hall, by will dated 10th October 1538, bequeathed his “bodie to bee buried in the churche of Bekyngham afore the rood-lofte.” Rev. Dr. Cox writes (1911) to say that in the tower archway stands the middle portion of the chancel screen, consisting of the doorway and two more bays, or compartments, with very fine tracery, of late-fifteenth century workmanship. The doorway (now blocked) which led from the rood-stair onto the top of the rood-loft, is visible in the east wall of the nave, to south of the chancel-arch.

BILSTHORPE.--The upper and lower doorways, square-headed, of the rood-stairs, now walled up, are clearly perceptible in the north side of the nave. Externally nothing of the old staircase remains.

BLYTH (October 1911).--The church of the Benedictine Priory (dissolved in February 1535–36) and the parochial church were under the same roof; but the screening arrangements are by no means clear. That the wall which cuts off the first bay of the nave below the crossing was built previously to the Reformation is evident from the fact that the westward surface of the filling was painted, late in the fifteenth, or in the early part of the sixteenth, century with the subject of the Doom, many traces of which remain to this day. It may be that this was the site of the pulpitum, in which case the walling simply meant heightening the front of the pulpitum until the space was filled to the roof. In the foot of the wall is a doorway (now blocked) 5 ft. 5 in. wide by 6 ft. 6 in. high, with a cambered head. Presumably this door was the former entrance of the pulpitum-passage into the quire.

_Photo: Mr. Arthur Lineker._

BLYTH PRIORY CHURCH: SCREEN IN THE NAVE.]

The rood-screen and loft over appear to have stood between the second pair of piers below the western crossing. Rev. John Raine, in his _History and Antiquities of Blyth_ (1860), described this screen as having fared very ill, for “with the exception of a fragment at the corner of the private gallery of Blyth Hall[49] and the lower panels, it has been destroyed; and ... these panels, all perfect though they are, are daubed over with paint, so as completely to obliterate the figures, except at the very base.” The screen, cleaned and “restored,” is of oak and rectangular in construction. It measures 21 ft. 6 in. long by 8 ft. 9 in. (exclusive of a modern lintel), with compartments centring at 1 ft. 2½ in. and having Perpendicular tracery to the depth of 12 in. in the head of the fenestration. The traceries are flat at the back, and only three at the northern extremity are genuine. They had been incorporated at one time in the Blyth Hall gallery. The doorway, contrary to what one would expect, is in the middle, and it has a clear opening of 3 ft. ½ in. The existing lintel rests in a hole of about 13 in. square in the second pier of the south arcade. The wainscot is 4 ft. 2 in. high and without tracery in the heads of the panels. The screen has at one time been richly coloured; only eleven, however, of the wainscot panels have paintings of saints, so much worn and mutilated as to be barely recognisable. The backgrounds are alternately green and deep purplish red. The subjects are as follow from north to south:--1. St. George. 2. Female saint in red robe, hands raised. 3. Archbishop in pontificals, chasuble red. 4. Female saint in red robe under green cloak, hands raised. 5. Abbot, or Abbess, in brown habit, crosier in hand. 6. Female saint in brown habit, kneeling to left, and contemplating a vision of our Lord rising out of the tomb or from clouds. Here is the doorway, having a clear opening of 3 ft. ½ in. South of the doorway:--7. Female saint, hands raised. 8. Saint in armour, with what looks like a hawk on his right hand. ? St. Bavon. 9. Figure in red, with close-fitting hood of red on the head, no nimbus, right hand holding what appears to be a boot; in which case it would represent Master John Schorne. 10. Figure in red, kneeling to right, and contemplating a vision. 11. Abbot, or Abbess, in brown habit, crosier in hand. Some of these figures have been identified respectively with Saints Boniface, Wilfrid, Edward, and Bridget. The last named, at any rate, is likely enough to be correct, seeing that among the lights of this church were one of St. Bridget, as also one of St. Sitha (Zita), which proves both these saints to have been objects of devotion in the place. Various chases in the piers show that the two arches to west of the above-described screen were both occupied by wooden parcloses. Across the south or parochial aisle, about in line with the above-described screen across the nave, stands another Perpendicular oak screen, authentic in the main, though patched, repaired, and even, according to a note by C. Clement Hodges in the _John of Gaunt Sketch Book_ (1880) having some details restored in composition. This screen measures 23 ft. 7 in. long by 12 ft. 10 in. high (cresting included). It comprises five bays centring at 4 ft. 5 in. to 4 ft. 6 in., of three lights each. The cord-line, as also the springing level of the vaulting, is 4 ft. 6½ in. above the middle rail. The tracery is 21 in. deep in the heads of the fenestration, which takes the form of depressed two-centred arches. The bases (9½ in. high) and the caps (8½ in. high) of the boutel-shafts are polygonal. The vaulting is complete on both sides of the screen, and the width across the top of the platform from front to back is 5 ft. 6 in. The breast-summer is deep, moulded, and has a hollow with square pateras. The wainscot is 4 ft. 2½ in. high, with tracery in the head of the panels to the depth of 9½ in. The panels, painted with figures, were “brought to light in 1842 from the boards and matting of pews, behind which they were concealed.” They may now, writes Raine in 1860, “be seen with sufficient distinctness, though with a few marks of Puritanical violence; with the exception of that of St. Ursula, which was found in such a state of decay as to justify its removal to a place of safe preservation. Other figures on the panels of the parish rood-screen have been cut away to make a road to the reading-desk and pulpit.” Six painted panels survive, as follow, from left to right:--To north of the doorway are: 1. St. Stephen in a red dalmatic; 2.? St. Agatha stripped to the middle, her breasts transversely pierced by a sword. 3. St. Edmund, crowned and holding a sceptre and arrows. To south of the doorway (which has a clear opening of 4 ft. 6½ in.) are: 4. St. Helen; 5. St. Barbara; and 6. St. Ursula. Five of these paintings are figured in outline by J. G. Weightman in Rev. John Raine’s work.

In the south arcade wall a passage from one loft to the other was tunnelled through the spandrel over the pier. This passage is walled up toward the north, but remains visible, with a hollow opening on the south side of the arcade, over the top of the south aisle screen.

At right angles to the north end of the south aisle screen, and enclosing the north side of the parochial chancel, is another oak screen of Perpendicular date and rectangular construction. It measures 14 ft. long by 9 ft. 5 in. high. It comprises a doorway at the east end and eight lights, only two compartments, centring at 3 ft. 10 in. and consisting of three lights apiece, being complete. It originally comprised at least four compartments, including the doorway. The wainscot is 4 ft. 3 in. high, and the tracery in the fenestration heads is 9½ in. deep. In the west part of the north aisle of the nave are two runs of panelling, both of similar character but not quite identical in design, one of them bearing distinct traces of ancient painting; panelling which must have belonged to the parapets of the rood-loft. There is no tracery, but the stiles are handsomely moulded. One run, 7 ft. 1½ in. long by 4 ft. high, comprises six panels centring at 1 ft. 1½ in., the hand-rail being 6¼ in. high. The other run, 9 ft. 3½ in. long by 2 ft. 11½ in. high, comprises eight panels centring at about 14 in., the hand-rail being 5¾ in. high. Both hand-rails are elaborately embattled, like alternate billet mouldings. Under the western tower are three more fragments of similar hand-rail, respectively 2 ft. 3½ in., 2 ft. 4 in., and 2 ft. 5 in. long.

BRIDGFORD, WEST (October 1911).--Across the present south aisle, and on the site of what was originally the east wall of the chancel previously to the enlarging of the church, stands an oak screen (_circa_ 1380), of rectangular construction. The character of the framework is that of a stone screen carried out in wood, with mason joints. It comprises four compartments, centring on an average at 1 ft. 5½ in., on either hand of the central doorway, the divisions of the wainscot corresponding with those of the fenestration. The doorway has a trefoil-cusped and feathered head, springing 6 ft. 6½ in. from the ground; it centres at 4 ft. 2½ in. and has a clear opening of 3 ft. 9½ in. The wainscot, 3 ft. 7½ in. high, has tracery in the head of the panels to the depth of 8½ in., but only the northernmost tracery ornament is authentic. The middle rail, embattled along the front edge, is flat upon the top, a familiar feature in early screenwork. The cord-line is 4 ft. 1½ in. above the middle rail and in the head of the fenestration the tracery is 16 in. deep. This tracery is in two orders on the west face of the screen, but the first order, with crocketed ogee ornament imposed, does not occur on the east face. The treatment of the crockets is peculiar, they being like rosettes at the points of cusping that radiates, instead of leaves that run in an upward direction in the usual manner. Moreover, the front surface of the tracery takes the form of a bead instead of the more usual fillet. The total height of the screen is 9 ft. 10 in. The lintel, 17 ft. 7 in. long, and embattled along the top, has a cavetto in which at intervals are pateras, all of floral ornament except the northernmost one (which represents a dog, or cat, with a rat in its mouth) and the pair surmounting the door-jambs. These two are masks, the northern one of which is muzzled. The jambs and the end-uprights are 5 in. wide, with mouldings in the lower part and pinnacles in the upper part, all cut out of the solid. A chase, 2 in. wide, in the abacus of the easternmost respond of the south aisle arcade shows that a wooden screen stood in the eastern arch of the arcade opening into the south aisle.

(Now in south aisle of enlarged church.)]

BUNNY (October 1911).--A much-mutilated oak screen, of rectangular construction and fourteenth century date, stands across the chancel-arch, which, however, on account of the abnormally uneven spacing of the screen, can scarcely be its original position. There are three compartments on the north side of the entrance and two on the south, their centrings varying from 2 ft. 2 in. to 2 ft. 6 in. The five openings of the fenestration have ogee tracery to the depth of from 10 to 10½ in. in the head. The entrance has a clear opening of 3 ft. 10 in. wide by 8 ft. 6 in. high to the apex of its two-centred arch. The latter is formed by a pair of solid spandrels, springing at a depth of 2 ft. 8 in. below the lintel, and sculptured with conventional foliage, in low relief, of lithic character. In fact, the whole screen except its fenestration tracery, is mason’s work in wood. The jambs of the doorway have remains of buttressing; and the muntins have conspicuous stops at their junction with the middle rail. The latter has been cruelly hacked about and retains only scanty remains of the original battlementing along the front. The wainscot stands 4 ft. 3 in. high, but is now a mere framework, having been robbed of its stiles and panels. The tracery is flat at the back. Some remnants of the former colouring may be discerned. The north portion of the screen is 7 ft. 1 in. long and the south portion 6 ft. 1 in. The total length is 17 ft., the height 8 ft. 11 in., or 9 ft. 10 in. including the lintel, which is 19 ft. 4 in. long, and an incongruous addition, of eighteenth century character. In the upper part of the chancel-arch was a boarded tympanum, removed shortly before 1902. The stone of the east sweep of the easternmost arch of the north arcade has been cut into, probably for fitting the rood-loft into position.

CALVERTON.--By will dated 10th October 1499, Thomas Belfin left 13s. 4d. “_facture unius_ roode-lofte _in ecclesia de_ Calverton.” The middle part of the abacus and astragal of the capital of the north reveal of the chancel-arch has been cut through vertically for the insertion of wooden screenwork.

CAR COLSTON.--In 1824 W. Stretton recorded that a rich screen, separating the chancel from the nave, had been “lately taken down.” But Mr. T. M. Blagg, F.S.A., thinks that Stretton must have attributed the removal of the screen to too recent a date. All recollection of it had long passed out of mind by 1846 or 1847, when, during the process of cementing the middle alley of the nave (Mr. Blagg’s grandfather then being churchwarden) some broken tracery of a pre-Reformation screen was quite unexpectedly discovered beneath a floor-slab. By the churchwarden’s orders, the remains of screenwork were left where they had been found and the slab replaced over them. At the east end of the south aisle (according to information supplied by Mr. Harry Gill, M.S.A.) stands a dado formed of part of the screen-wainscot, measuring 4 ft. 3 in. long by 3 ft. 6½ in. high, inclusive of the middle rail, itself 4½ in. high. It consists of vertical boarding, reeded at the joints; its identity being established by the fact that it is pierced with holes for elevation-squints. Two of the holes are round, while the third is an elongated quatrefoil. Both reveals of the chancel-arch are hollowed, at a level of 3 ft. 10 in. from the bottom, with a chase 5 in. by 4½ in. for the insertion of wooden screenwork; and at a level of 3 ft. 2 in. above the chase is another one, 6 in. square, immediately below the necking of the chancel-arch. These chases are now patched with new stone. Moreover, the abacus has a chase extending upwards into the springer, for the lintel of the screen. The cutting away of part of the mouldings on the east side of the chancel-arch indicates the site of the eastern front of the rood-loft.

CLAYWORTH (October 1911).--Though all the upper portion of the chancel-screen is only modern, the greater part of the wainscot is genuine. It stands 4 ft. 1 in. high, with head-tracery 10 in. deep, and of very doubtful authenticity. The back, or eastward, surface of the panels is of feather-edge boarding. The chief feature of the screen is the extraordinary massiveness of the middle rail, which measures 8 in. high, is embattled along the top edge, and had square pateras along its westward front on either hand of the doorway. The north section having been curtailed, there are only two pateras on its rail and three panels below; but the south section, which appears to be of approximately the original dimensions, is 6 ft. 1 in. long, has three pateras along the rail, and comprises four compartments. The uprights have massive buttresses, square on plan. The rood-loft was approached from the north. The entrance in the northward face of the north chancel-pier is rectangular, 5 ft. 4 in. high by 1 ft. 7 in. wide. It is 1 ft. 3½ in. above the present floor level, and has a rebate, showing that the door swung outward from the stair. Three stone steps inside remain, but the rest of the stair is blocked. The issue naveward through the east spandrel of the north arcade is walled up likewise. Marks in the masonry indicate that there was formerly a parclose in the arch between the chancel and the south chapel, that of St. Nicholas.

Across the south aisle, and in line with the chancel-arch, there stands a stone screen-wall, 15 in. thick, 11 ft. 2 in. long, and about 10 ft. 6 in. high. It consists of three arched openings of obtuse two-centred form, each being constructed of two blocks of stone with a joint at the apex. The middle aperture 3 ft. 4 in. wide, with jambs measuring 9 in. each from north to south, is open to the ground, forming a doorway; but this does not look like the original plan, because the chamfer, instead of being carried down to the floor, is returned on the line of the fenestration-cill and has been abruptly cut through at the level of the latter in order to make the doorway. The change, however, if change it was, must have taken place previously to 1676, for a plan of the building in the “Rector’s Book” of that date shows the central doorway then in existence. The plinth is 11 in. high, and the wall sets on 2¾ in., back and front, except on the westward front of the south section. From the ground to the fenestration-cill measures 4 ft. 7 in. high, the latter having a stool for the mullions worked on it. From the cill to the spring of the arches measures 3 ft. ½ in. The northern opening is 4 ft. 1 in. high by 2 ft. 5½ in., the southern one 4 ft. 2 in. high by 2 ft. 6 in. Both of them, like the upper part of the doorway, have chamfered edges of fairly wide splay. There is no sculpture whatever, but the surface of the stone shows abundant traces of red paint.

COLSTON BASSET.--W. Stretton noted on 25th October 1811:--“The ... Gothic screen is still standing and is chaste and handsome,” and also that “the south transept has a fine Gothic screen still standing.” The latter was in two parts, one occupying the arch between the nave and the transept, the other the arch between the transept and south aisle. The church itself having been wantonly dismantled and turned into a ruin in 1892, the screens taken out of it were removed to Long Whatton church, Leicestershire.

COSTOCK.--The church being without a chancel-arch, there was, previously to the sadly drastic “restoration” in 1848, a boarded partition, or tympanum, reaching to the roof from the top of the rood-screen. The latter was ancient, and is described as having been in a dilapidated state, and covered with whitewash.

COTGRAVE.--“The staircase to the rood-loft on the south side of the chancel-arch is walled up.” (J. T. Godfrey, 1907.)

CROPWELL BISHOP.--In 1824 Stretton noted that the chancel was separated from the nave by a screen, which, however, has now disappeared.

DRAYTON, EAST.--There is a good late-fifteenth century rood-screen with handsome tracery. The coved top remains, but the lower panels are wanting and their place is occupied by modern boarding. (Communicated by Rev. Dr. Cox, 1911.)

ELTON.--Remains of fifteenth-century screenwork, incorporated in the high pews, were noted by Rev. Dr. Cox in 1904.

FINNINGLEY.--When Stretton wrote, the east end of the north aisle was still parted off by a Gothic screen, the enclosure being used as a vestry.

GAMSTON.--At the north-east end of the nave are the rood-stairs, encased in a turret rising above the roof.

GEDLING.--An oak screen of Perpendicular work enclosed the east end of the north aisle until the “restoration” in 1871–72, when it was taken down and a portion only, consisting of the central doorway and two side compartments, preserved, and set up in the arch of the tower at the west end of the north aisle.

GRANBY.--“The chancel-arch bears evidence of the former existence of a screen.” (J. T. Godfrey, 1907.)

HAWTON (1906).--The oak rood-screen, standing under the western order of the chancel-arch, dates from the latter half of the fifteenth century. Rectangular in construction, the screen measures 17 ft. 6½ in. long by 10 ft. 6½ in. high. It comprises five compartments, the two on either hand of the doorway centring at 3 ft. 3½ in., and divided by moulded muntins (3¾ in. wide from north to south) into three lights apiece, opening 9 in. wide. The wainscot, 4 ft. 4 in. high, is divided into rectangular panels, corresponding in spacing to the divisions of the fenestration, and having no tracery in the head, but pierced in the upper part, as though for elevation-squints, with little crosses composed of five circles connected by straight slits, not unlike a cross pommée in heraldry. The door-jambs and the greater muntins (5 in. wide from north to south) are buttressed in the west with buttresses, square on plan, with panelled fronts, moulded bases, and two set-offs each. The middle rail, flat at the top, is 8 in. high. The fenestration each side of the entrance is 5 ft. 6 in. high with Perpendicular tracery in the head to the depth of 1 ft. 3½ in. An embattled transom conspicuously runs through the tracery of the fifteen lights. The doorway, which is without doors or gates, has a clear opening of 3 ft. 3 in. wide. The door-head is in the form of an arch with quatrefoil pierced spandrels, and cusped and feathered underneath, springing, at a level of 6 ft. 6½ in. from the bottom of the screen, under an horizontal lintel. The latter (5¾ in. high) cuts off the minor muntins above it at a distance of 1 ft. 4 in. below the cornice, itself 8½ in. high, and, like the middle rail and the door-lintel, handsomely moulded and embattled along the upper edge. The cornice is morticed along the top for the ribs of the rood-loft coving. The mortices, about an inch deep by 1¾ in. from east to west by 3 to 3½ in. long, centre on the average at 15 in. The coving has unfortunately perished with the loft, but, what is an extremely rare and notable feature, there remains, embedded in the north wall of the nave, the end of the loft woodwork, cut off flush with the plaster in the sixteenth century and eventually brought to light through the flaying of the wall surface in modern times. The profile of the breast-summer can be made out, but that of the hand-rail is less clear. Enough, however, survives to show that the level of the rood-loft platform was some 12 ft. 9 in. above the present floor level, and that the front parapet measured 3 ft. 10½ in. high, the top of the hand-rail being therefore 16 ft. 7½ in. from the floor. A sketch elevation, with details and sections of the rood-screen, drawn by J. Norton in 1871, is to be found in _The Spring Gardens Sketch Book_, plates 43 and 44, vol. v. 1874.