early stone screen (14th century) is found at Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Both these screens lack lofts, as do all surviving English screens earlier than the 15th century. However, some early screens, now lost, may be presumed to have had a loft surmounted by the Great Rood, as the churches of Colsterworth and Thurlby in Lincolnshire preserve rood stairs which can be dated stylistically to the beginning of the 13th century, and these represent the earliest surviving evidence of parochial screens; effectively contemporary with the Lateran Council. The majority of surviving screens are no earlier than the 15th century, such as those at Trull in Somerset and Attleborough in Norfolk. In many East Anglian and Devonian parish churches, original painted decoration survives on wooden screen panels, having been whitewashed over at the Reformation; although almost all have lost their rood beams and lofts, and many have been sawn off at the top of the panelled lower section. The quality of the painting and gilding is, some of it, of a very high order, notably those from the East Anglian Ranworth school of painters, of which examples can be found in Southwold and Blythburgh, as well as at Ranworth itself. The magnificent painted screen at St Michael and All Angels Church, Barton Turf in Norfolk is unique in giving an unusually complete view of the heavenly hierarchy, including nine orders of angels. Nikolaus Pevsner also identified the early-16th-century painted screen at Bridford, Devon, as being notable. The 16th-century screen at Charlton-on-Otmoor, said by Pevsner to be "the finest in Oxfordshire", has an unusual custom associated with it, where the rood cross is garlanded with flowers and foliage twice a year, and until the 1850s the cross (which at that time resembled a large corn dolly) was carried in a May day procession. A particularly large example can be found at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Uffculme, Devon, which is nearly 70 feet in length. See also References Notes Bibliography Further reading Williams, Michael Aufrère, 'Medieval Devon Roodscreens from the Fourteenth Century to the Present Day', The Devon Historian, 83, 2014, pp. 1–13 Williams, Michael Aufrère, 'The Iconography of Medieval Devon Roodscreens', The Devon Historian, 84, 2015, pp. 17–34. Williams, Michael Aufrère, 'Devon Roodscreens after the Reformation: Destruction and Survival', The Devon Historian, 87, 2018, pp. 11– 24. External links Norfolkchurches.co.uk/screens Painted screens in Norfolk churches Norfolkchurches.co.uk/norfolkroods More about the painted rood