The rood or chancel screen was the visual focus of the medieval parish church, separating the sacred space of the chancel from the public nave.  In East Anglia, many richly decorated screens survive as testimony to the impressive craft of medieval painters and carpenters and also to parish pride and patronage. These screens are a unique reminder of the engagement of ordinary people with the Christian church and of their devotional preferences, representing one of the most important means of communication before widespread literacy. As a body, existing fifteenth-century rood screen paintings form the most significant corpus of late medieval English painting.

This series aims to draw attention to some of these medieval treasures and to encourage visitors to explore the beautiful churches where these screens are to be found.

The trails were written and produced by Hungate Medieval Art in collaboration with Lucy Wrapson at the Hamilton Kerr Institute as part of the 2012 ‘Heaven’s Gate: Medieval Rood Screens from Norfolk’ exhibition. They were designed by Brian Williams Korteling and printed with support of the Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust. We are grateful to Lucy Wrapson and to Paul Hurst for the use of their photographs to illustrate these leaflets. Paul Hurst’s photographs of rood screens also feature in the book Norfolk Rood Screens by Paul Hurst and Jeremy Haselock (Phillimore, 2012).