Choir screen

Summary.  A metal screen separating the crossing from the choir was installed in 1861. The wrought iron, copper and brass screen with inclusions of semi-precious jewels is considered to be one of the most outstanding works in metal in the UK.

           In 1789, James Wyatt removed the stone screen between the choir and the Lady Chapel and used the stone to build a screen between the crossing and the choir.[1] A new organ was placed on top of the stone wall in 1790. It occupied the first choir bay, an estimated area of 9 m x 6 m (30 feet wide and 20 feet long). The stone screen, organ and an added window stretching upwards to the roof separated the nave from the choir and thus the congregation from the clergy. In 1856, the organ was removed and placed in the north choir aisle. In 1857, the stone screen was dismantled.

Original stone screen, Britton 1820.[2]

 

          In 1859, as part of the complete restoration of the choir and presbytery by George Gilbert Scott, 1811–1878,[3] drawings were prepared for an innovative open metal screen to separate the nave from the choir which would allow sight of the high altar.[4] The screen was designed by Scott, manufactured by Francis Alfred Skidmore,[5] 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.[6]

 

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.[7] 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. This 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’.[8]  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.

Screen in Salisbury Cathedral .

The screen at Salisbury, erected 1869–72, was removed in 1959 and sold as scrap metal.[9]

                        

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 the finest Midlands craftsmanship.

---

[1] 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.

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

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[5] 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.

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

[7] Angels playing musical instruments is a motif for Chad around the cathedral and particularly in St Chad’s Head Chapel.

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

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