Broken Masonary

The Decorated Period

Notice the broken masonry in the east wall of the transept to the north of the pulpit.  

This is evidence of the stone stair, which gave access to the rood loft above the timber screen, which originally separated the nave from the chancel.   This would have been erected between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it was fashion to add such screens.   A rood was a cross or crucifix and access to it was for the purpose of draping in purple during holy week.  

How long the screen survived is open to conjecture.   Sadly many disappeared at the time of Henry V111's break with Rome, his having been denied the collusion of the Pope in his matrimonial ventures.   Where Church furnishings including imagery, which could be claimed to be ‘popery', were destroyed or removed.  Often the wainscot panel of screens had painted representation of saints, which of course, offended Henry's ruling, so the Membury screen may have disappeared at this time.

Nothing changed very much for in the seventeenth century under the Puritans there was a similar distaste for imagery, which was thought to contravene the Commandment banning graven images.   Sculpture was smashed, medieval mural paintings of dooms and biblical stories such as that of Adam and Eve were thought to be improper and were obscured with white wash.

Web address:  www.thelocalchannel.co.uk/memburystjohnbaptist