Choir screens

Summary.  Various screens have separated the choir from the nave. A metal screen, installed in 1861, is one of the most outstanding works in metal in the UK.

           From early times a choir was separated by some kind of screen from the worshippers. The choir was integral to the worship and close to the priests at the east end of the church, whereas the worshippers were mere spectators. The earliest screen was a triple arch.

7th- century church at Reculver showing a triple arch separating the choir or cantor and priests from the nave. Bassa built such a church in 669.

 

AI rendition of inside an early church with a triple arch.

 

Possible layout of the second cathedral, conjectured to be by King Offa in 770s, with a triple arch. The nave is conjectured. Offa would be sitting close to his archbishop. 

Possible layout of Brixworth Church late 8th-century. It has a strong resemblance to the Lichfield second cathedral. 

  

 It is unknown what sort of screen separated the choir when the third, current cathedral was built in the 13th-century. It is recorded in 1492, a new pair of organs were placed in the loft over the choir screen.[1]  It is also unknown what happened during the iconoclasm of Reformation and also what was present after the 1646 Civil War destruction. It could have been two smaller outside arches with gates and a middle doorway through a large arch as drawn early in the 18th-century. The screen appeared to have steps to the organ on the south side of the central arch.

AI rendition based on a drawing by Gale, 1720, and published by Browne Willis in 1727.

 

In 1789, James Wyatt removed the stone screen between the choir and the Lady Chapel and used the stone to build a new screen between the crossing and the choir.[2] A new organ was placed on top of the stone wall in 1790; Wyatt designed its case. It occupied the first choir bay, an estimated area of 9 m x 6 m (30 feet wide and 20 feet long). Britton called it an organ screen.[3] In the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1795, lxv, 998-9, it was described as a beautiful screen. A glass screen over the organ and reaching to the roof was put up in 1801. All together the stone screen, organ and an added window stretched upwards to the roof now totally separated the nave from the choir so that visitors to the nave could not see or hear much from the clergy behind the monumental wall.  Within the wall were two rooms, presumably vestries, though the northern room had steps to the organ loft.

AI enhanced drawing from Britton 1820 showing the two large vestries. One was for the choristers and the other for priests and assistants.

 

AI enhanced drawings of the Wyatt choir screen from the nave (on the left) and choir (on the right). Britton 1820[4].  It completely separates the nave from the choir. Which means some worshippers would be allowed through the screen into the choir area, but some would have to stay in the nave.

AI enhanced drawing by John Buckler 1822 showing the imposing choir screen at the end of the nave.  On the right is Wyatt's original drawing of the new screen with a small organ on top. The finished screen appears to have been higher and later a glass screen was added to reach the ceiling. It was described as giving comfort to the choir in winter, which means draught-proof.

 In 1856, the organ was removed and placed in the north choir aisle. In 1857, the stone screen was dismantled. In 1859, as part of the complete restoration of the choir and presbytery by George Gilbert Scott, 1811–1878.[5] Drawings were prepared for an innovative open metal screen to separate the nave from the choir which would allow sight of the high altar.[6] The screen was designed by Scott, manufactured by Francis Alfred Skidmore,[7] 1817–1896, at his works in Alma Street, Hillfields, Coventry, and installed in 1861. The estimated cost was £800 with another £132 paid for gates across the adjacent aisles. Drawings were submitted for a new pulpit in 1864 and installed a year later. Skidmore almost certainly went on to make the lectern in brass.[8]

 

Original drawing of a screen. It is less ornate than the final screen.

 

‘The chancel screen at Lichfield is as original in its conception as in its execution; it is absolutely unsurpassed, (Arts Journal, London, 1862)

 

          The screen is a highly-ornamented structure in wrought-iron, copper and brass with polychrome in red, green, gilt and other oxide colours. The capitals are hammered copper and there are imitations of various fruits (blackberry, red currants, strawberries, rose hips and grapes) in ivory, onyx, and red and white cornelian. On each side at the top of the screen are eight bronze angels playing ancient musical instruments representing the heavens singing as Bede described when Chad died.[9] There is much representation of plants and it has been suggested the screen harks to a hedge.

Scott had previously designed a wooden screen at Ely and had it installed in 1851; it was his first open screen in a cathedral. Making a screen in metal at Lichfield was new to the UK and others followed at Hereford, Worcester (1873) and Salisbury. Durham rejected a metal screen and instead installed one in marble and alabaster. The Hereford screen was first displayed at the London International Exhibition in 1862 at which it was said to be ‘the finest piece of modern metalwork in existence’.[10]  It consisted of eight tons of iron, copper and brass with 50,000 pieces of mosaic, enamels and stones. Others thought it added gloom to the cathedral after its installation in 1863. In 1967, after fierce argument for and against the merit of the screen, it was taken out of the cathedral and first stored in Coventry and then the V & A Museum in London. Its restoration began in 1999 and by 2001 was on display in the metalwork section of the museum.

 

Drawing of the Hereford screen at the 1862 Exhibition. From Illustrated London News, 30 August 1962. It took over 70 men and 5 months to make. Below is the screen in the cathedral.

The screen at Salisbury, erected 1869–72, was removed in 1959 and sold as scrap metal.[11]

 

Screen in Salisbury Cathedral

 

Lichfield’s metal screen remains the only one left in place in a cathedral. It has been little altered; there was some restoration in the 1970s. It harks to the new gates of Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation. Like the stalls, reredos, statues, presbytery tiled floor and cathedra it shows off Midland’s craftsmanship.

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[1] J. C. Cox, ‘XVIII Benefactions of Thomas Heywood, Dean (1457-1492) to the cathedral church of Lichfield,’ Archaeologia, (1890). 52, 02, 617-46.

[2] Stukeley described the screen as a “fine piece of architecture although the figures are destroyed and every cherub defaced. It is uniform from top to bottom and yet every capital and pedestal are different works of art.” Pennant said it was the most elegant which can be imagined.

[3] J. Britton, The history and antiquities of the See and cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1820), 42.

[4]  Ibid, J. Britton (1820), Plates 7 and 10.

[5] Best remembered for his design of the Midland Hotel at St Pancras and the Albert Memorial. Scott also designed the Workhouse on Trent Valley Road, now part of Samuel Johnson hospital. When appointed he had a staff of 27. After his death his work at Lichfield was continued by his son, John Oldrid Scott, 1841–1913.

[6] There are records of much discussion on the location or not of a screen, its form and material and what it should represent. Opening up the visual aspect of the cathedral was deemed to be paramount. The general view is George Scott more-or-less had his ideas executed. The screen reflects the growing use of ironwork due to its lowered cost of production and manufacture.

[7] He was recognised as a premier metalworker of the 19th-century, yet sadly died in poverty. His silver-gilt and enamel chalice exhibited in the Great Exhibition, 1851, launched his career. It is now in the V & A.. !n 1867, Coventry held its own International Exhibition, and Skidmore had a large section for his exhibits.

[8] D. Wallington, Scott and Skidmore. The Lichfield legacy. Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library. 44–60.

[9] Angels playing musical instruments is a motif for Chad around the cathedral and particularly in St Chad’s Head Chapel. J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede; The ecclesiastical history of the English people. (Oxford: 2008), 176. “If you heard the sound of singing and saw a heavenly company come down, I command you in the name of the Lord to tell no one before my death.”

[10] Quoted from I. Brown, ‘The Hereford Screen’, Ecclesiology Today. (2014), Issues 47 & 48, 3–44.

[11] R. Mount, ‘Screens and vistas in Cathedral. An old controversy revived’, Country Life, (September, 1960).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The year 1319

 Summary. In 1319, 76-year-old Bishop Walter de Langton visited Lychefeld to see projects he had funded. The fortified Close now had a magnificent palace. The cathedral was being extended. Chad’s new shrine needed consecrating.

Prior to 1319

Walter de Langton was born in the village of either West Langton[1] or Church Langton, Leicestershire, in 1243. He said his father was Simon Peverel, [2]  whose family had ruled from Peveril Castle in Derbyshire, since 1066. The Peverels had family links to landowners in Dudley, Tutbury and Northamptonshire. Family members were in the church; an uncle had been Dean of York in 1262 and then elected archbishop in 1265 only for it to be rejected by the pope. In 1281–2, Walter became the clerk of the wardrobe in Edward I’s royal chancery, and in 1290 was made Bishop of Ely and then keeper of the wardrobe. During this time, he obtained many ecclesiastical preferment's, making him rich. Langton had been clerk to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells and treasurer of the exchequer, and in 1295, he succeeded to the post of treasurer and retained it until 1307, bringing him more wealth. In 1296, he became Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, [3] with his enthronement delayed until 1299. He now used his considerable wealth to enhance the approaches to the cathedral, the cathedral, and The Close.[4]

AI enhanced statue of Walter de Langton from the middle tier, right side, of the west front.

There was another side to his rise in power. In 1307, he was accused of committing adultery over two years with the wife of Sir John Lovetot, and then murdering the woman’s husband. He was charged with misappropriating funds, communicating with the devil, committing trespass, misbehaving to gain money and concealing his felonies. He was imprisoned in the Tower, at Windsor and then Wallingford for more than a year.[5] He was in prison again in 1311 for a short time, but later exonerated from all his wrongdoings. By 1319, he was accepted back by the king, Edward II, though had lost much of his power. However, he retained his considerable wealth, owning 11 large houses, at least three palaces, including one very large palace in the Strand, London, two castles and much land. He rebuilt the diocesan seat of Eccleshall Castle. It has been estimated at his death in 1321 he left land, money and mortgages worth £50K which today is almost £11.1billion.[6] In 2011. he was thought to have been the 53rd richest person to have lived in England since 1066.   

The year 1319 imagined.

In January 1319, Bishop Langton, aged 76, visited churches and priories[7] in the diocese around Lychefeld. On Thursday 12 January he stayed overnight in his new palace within the cathedral Close.

Langton and two bodyguard outriders passing down Dam Street to the cathedral. Between 1315 and 1325 was a Great Famine in which 5-10% of the population might have died. There was a great increase in crime. 

AI rendition of entering the southeast Close gate. Langton obtained a licence, April 20, 1299, to strengthen and crenellate the boundary walls of The Close. In 1317, Edward II ordered The Close to be securely defended on his behalf. The Dam Street causeway was earlier than the Bacon – Bird Street causeway, 1310, and there is no evidence with a link to Langton. But he could have improved it when adding the walls. The banner above the gate is that for the Angevin empire.

AI rendition of Langton and outriders entering The Close. The twin semi-octagonal towers at the Dam Street entrance were incomplete in 1319, taking another 3 or 4 years to have massive oak doors fitted and later a drawbridge and portcullis (around 50 years later). It was a postern gate, that is secondary to the main gate and used only with permission.

          Entering The Close would reveal the work being done on the east end of the cathedral.[8]  Work on the Lady Chapel started around 1315, and was completed about 1336.[9] Between 1315 and 1317 there was a ‘Great Famine’ caused by unusually heavy rains and cool temperatures that prevented crops from maturing, leading to successive harvest failures. It lingered on to 1325 and 10–25% of the population of many cities and towns died. It must have delayed or slowed the building of the Lady Chapel and completion of the walls around the Close.

AI rendition of possibly the 4th year on building the Lady Chapel.

            The riders moved to the gate in the wall surrounding the bishop’s palace; this inner wall increased security. The palace was built against the east wall of The Close and completed by around 1314.[10] It had attached octagonal towers and turrets. It was 320 feet long and 160 feet wide. Layout of the palace is known from Henry Greswold’s drawing of 1685.[11] It is unclear how much of the palace in the drawing was originally present in 1299. The ‘Lady’s Chamber’ is problematical and might have been a lesser hall. The chapel might have been at ground level. A treasury is not shown on the drawing. Also missing is a bakery, granary, hay barn, saucery (a room to prepare sauces), dovecot, and pinfold. The gateway on the south side might have been widened for carriages. The gardens had an herbarium and a pond. Water passed to the palace through lead pipes.[12] Lead and tin were added to the roofing, though the outer buildings were probably thatched. Size, dimensions and architecture were similar to the Bishop’s Palace at Wells, 1275-92.

AI rendition of the 1685 layout of the palace.

The palace in 1319 might look like this, if loosely based on the palace at Wells Cathedral.

AI rendition of the original palace. Below the chapel were cellars, a kitchen and brewhouse. The tower would have rooms for lodging.  Staff lived in rooms against the wall on the right. 

The palace was described as spacious and splendid with the great hall hundred feet long and fifty-six feet broad, painted with the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral of King Edward I, his patron. The Queen described Langton as 'the king's right eye.’[13] The hall is thought to have been the 5th or 6th largest in the country. The kitchen was accessed by stairs in the southern corner going down to ground level.

Langton in the Great Hall, His diners could be family drawn from across the Midlands.

The following morning outside the deanery he met the dean, John de Derby. John had been dean for 29 years and his family might have known Langton's Peverel ancestors.

      

 Early on Friday 13 January, he visited the cathedral to see his new shrine to St Chad. He joined the Dean, John de Derby, who had held the post for 29 years, 1280-1319. John died on October 12 and was buried in the cathedral. The bishop returned to Lychfeld to officiate at de Derby's funeral. The bishop greeted many canons and chantry priests waiting at the west door. One could have been Walter’s brother, Robert, who held the prebend of Handsacre, and before that Flixton and Stotfold. The west front of the cathedral was probably unfinished and might not have had spires on the towers.[14] Niches were filled with gilded statues and the niches painted red. It is thought the cathedral was not completed until the late-1330s.

AI rendition of the bishop being met by all the priests and acolytes of the cathedral. This image is the earliest known of the cathedral, and was published in 1655. To the left can be seen the half-timber, half-brick old library later destroyed in the Civil War. The green is painted foliage, but the amount present is questionable. Most likely there were many small angels sculpted, if like at Wells and Salisbury. 

Perhaps, the bishop stopped at the south transept to see the history tablets on the west wall. John de Derby is showing Langton's name which would be the 50th bishop for Mercia and Lichfield.

Around 1303, Langton gave £2120 to Paris stonemasons to sculpt a monument for Chad’s new shrine in the retroquire. On the stone plinth was set a model of the cathedral in silver and gold. The shrine could have been in place near the high altar by 1307- 8.  The early position of the shrine has been questioned before it is finally placed in front of the newly built Lady Chapel.  A Lichfield Muniment Inventory of 1345 estimated its value at £2000. It was decorated with 6 rubies, 5 sapphires, 15 large emeralds, 16 pearls and many small stones. Some jewels were set in an image of Chad. It is unclear which relics were kept in the casket within the confines of the model cathedral, and which were still in St Chad’s Head Chapel.[15]

AI rendition of Bishop Langton blessing his new shrine to Chad possibly in a small chapel behind the high altar. The gilded roof is a conjecture based on Becket’s tomb having one. It would have been raised or lowered by a rope or chain. The shrine had railings around it.

After this ceremony Langton left Lychefeld for Tame worth or Tamworth.[16]

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[1] T. Cox, Survey of the ancient and present state of Great Britain, (London: 1738), 233.

[2] Until recently, he was said to be of lowly birth and loosely connected with the Peverel family. See J. Blackwell Hughes, ‘The episcopate of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, with a calendar of his register’, Unpub. thesis, University of Nottingham, 1992, 198.

[3] His consecration by Béraud de Got, cardinal-bishop of Albano, took place on 23 December 1296, at Cambrai, where he was engaged in peace negotiations with the papal nuncios. On his return he made his profession of obedience to the archbishop before the high altar at Canterbury.

[4] For a fuller account of the early years of Langton see the post, ‘Bishop Walter Langton - local benefactor.’

[5] J. B. Stone, A history of Lichfield cathedral, from its foundation to the present time. with a description of its architecture and monuments. with photographic illustrations, (1870). 22.

[6] P. Beresford, The richest of the rich; the wealthiest 250 people in Britain since 1066. (Petersfield: 2011), 118. Langton was 53rd in the list having 1% of the national income.

[7] J. B. Hughes, ‘The episcopate of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, calendar of his register," Thesis for Nottingham Univ. (1992) Vol. 1, 283.  His visitations in January 1319 were: Monday 9th at Sandwell Priory, 11th at Canwell Priory and Shenstone, 12th at Farewell Priory staying overnight at Lichfield, 13th at Tamworth, 14th at Harlaston, passing through Lichfield and staying at Clifton Campville, 15th at Burton Abbey, 16th at Barton-under-Needwood, staying at Tatenhill and on 17th ending at Tutbury Priory.

[8] In his will Langton, bequeathed £860 13s 3d towards completing the Lady Chapel, and it is thought this was sufficient, but it is unclear.

[9] In 1336, William de Heywood and Robert Aylbrick were admitted as custodians of the fabric of the chapel of the Blessed Mary. This is taken to indicate the Chapel was now being used.

[10] It might not have been completed until 1314, when Langton visited Lichfield. VCH volume 14, suggests work began on the palace in 1304 and was completed by 1314.

[11] Plan of Langton’s Palace reconstructed from Plate XVI in The Reliquary, quarterly Archaeological Journal and Review, (London: 1866–67), 7, 254. Also, from a drawing in the Bodleian Library, Tanner 217, f.42.

[12] Water had been piped to The Close from 1140-70.

[13] N. Denholm-Young, The liber epistolaris of Richard de Bury, (Roxburghe Club Oxford: 1950) 317. He was appointed the principal executor of the king’s will.

[14] Two friars minor from Clonmel, Ireland, were on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and saw the cathedral in 1323. They kept a diary and described the three towers. This is ambiguous and might or might not include the spires.

[15] The shrine was not in place in the Lady Chapel entrance until around 1360. Langton would see it in a small chapel at the end of the squared choir-presbytery.

[16] In 1319 the king gave Tamworth charters confirming the townspeople certain rights.