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The rood screen at St James Pockthorpe
St James Pockthorpe had a rood screen with painted panels that each featured a different saint. The screen's age is not known with any certainty, but it was "beautifully painted" in 1479.
The screen was dismantled in 1883. By 1911, the panels had all been sold and were owned privately by an unknown person. They were then bought from Norwich Market by Jeremiah Colman (of Colman's Mustard)—reputedly for a shilling each. Colman later arranged for them to be returned to St James's, and new screen was made for them.
The panels
According to Reverend Sidney Long, who wrote a booklet about St James Pockthorpe, the ten saints depicted were: a bishop—St Nicholas or St Blaise; St Barbara, holding a tower; St Zita (identifiable by her apron, rosary, bag, and keys, named as Sitha on the panel); St Agnes shown with a dog and labelled St Auguste (the animal depicted was once a lamb, which was so heavily overpainted that it changed species); a boy with a sword, identified as William of Norwich; an unknown figure with cup and bread, labelled St Johanna, but possibly Elizabeth of Hungary; a bishop, possibly identified as St Martin of Tours; St Blida, the mother of St Walstan, shown with a palm and a book; St Walstan (holding his scythe); St Helena, with her double cross.
St Barbara was a popular 3rd-century Christian Greek saint and martyr. She is often portrayed with miniature chains and a tower. She is perhaps best known as the patron saint of armourers, artillerymen, and others who work with explosives, because of her association with lightning. A 15th-century French version of her story credits her with 13 miracles, many of which reflect the security she offered her devotees. The earliest references to her life did not appear until the 7th century, and she was venerated from the 9th century.
St Walstan was born in Blythburgh in Suffolk. The son of Benedict and Blida (who is also depicted in a panel in the church), Walstan is said to have "received a pious education" as a boy, before deciding to become a farm worker. He worked at Taverham until his death on 30 May 1016. His hearse left Taverham for Bawburgh, where he was buried; along the route springs miraculously appeared.
He is represented by a crown and sceptre with a scythe in his hand and cattle near him. He is a patron saint of farm animals and agricultural workers, who once visited his shrine at the church at Bawburgh. Two sources for his life exist.
Blida (recorded as Blithe in some sources) had her own religious cult in Norfolk during the Middle Ages. She is considered to have been buried in the Norfolk village of Martham, where there was once a chapel dedicated to her.
St Agnes was martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. She was born into Roman nobility, and raised as a Christian. She died in c.304, aged 12 or 13, after she refused to deny God. She was dragged naked to a brothel, tried, sentenced to death, and was eventually beheaded, after attempts for her to be burnt at the stake failed.
An early account of Agnes was written by the 4th-century theologian, St Ambrose. She is depicted with a lamb (the symbol of her virginal innocence and her name), a sword, and a palm branch (an attribute of her martyrdom).
St Zita (c. 1212 – 27 April 1272), also known as Sitha or Citha, is an Italian saint, the patron saint of maids and domestic servants. She is often appealed to in order to help find lost keys. Zita entered domestic service at the age of 12, and served the same family for almost 50 years. Through her diligence and fidelity, she became a trusted and valued servant. She spent her days doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Zita was known for her kindness and generosity to the poor.
St Martin of Tours was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable saints in France, heralded as the patron saint of the Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (in present-day Hungary), he converted to Christianity at a young age. He served in the Roman cavalry in Gaul, but left military service before 361, when he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, establishing the monastery at Ligugé. He was consecrated as Bishop of Tours in 371. As bishop, he was active in the suppression of the remnants of Gallo-Roman religion, but he opposed the violent persecution of the Priscillianist sect of ascetics.
William of Norwich was a Norwich apprentice, who suffered a violent death during Easter 1144. The city's French-speaking Jewish community was blamed, but the crime was never solved. In Norfolk, William became venerated as a saint, when Norwich Cathedral promoted stories of his death in odium fidei "out of hatred of the faith". The only detailed information about him is from the Norwich Benedictine monk Thomas of Monmouth, who wrote The Life and Miracles of St William of Norwich in 1150.
St Helena or St Helen (Flavia Julia Helena Augusta, born about 250, died 18th August 330) was the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine I. She became famous for her activities in spreading Christianity and for her excavations in Jerusalem, during which, according to Christian chroniclers, the Holy Sepulchre, the Cross and other relics of Christ's Passion were discovered. Helena is revered by a number of Christian churches as a saint.
Elizabeth of Hungary was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary and the landgravine of Thuringia. She was married at 14. After her husband's death (when she was 20), she regained her dowry and used the money to build a hospital, where she tended to the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death in 1231 (at the age of 24). She was canonized in 1235. She is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. She was an early member of the Third Order of St. Francis, and is today honoured as its patroness.
Saint Nicholas was an early Christian bishop during the time of the Roman Empire. He is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, toymakers, unmarried people, and students. He gave rise to the tradition of Santa Claus. Little is known of him, but in one of the most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls by giving coins to their father. He calmed a storm at sea, and saved three soldiers from wrongful execution. Another legend tells how he resurrected three boys who had been pickled in brine by a butcher planning to sell them as pork during a famine.
Background information - the Ranworth group
The rood screen panels at St Mary Magdalene are similar to those found in several other East Anglian parish churches, including those in the famous screen at St Helen's, Ranworth. The panels in the so-called Ranworth group are related by their age, how they were made, and their decorative schemes.
In the 1970s it was suggested by scholars that a workshop had once existed centred around the parish of St Peter Parmentergate, which had made stained glass, brasses and possibly rood screens. Few individual names are known; perhaps because the screens were painted outside Norwich by craftsmen whose names were never recorded; or that the presence of the workshop meant few individuals were skilled in one craft alone. The proposed workshop has been connected to the best-known of Norfolk’s screen paintings, Ranworth, and others at Filby, North Elmham, Old Hunstanton, North Walsham, Thornham, St James Pockthorpe, St Augustine’s Norwich. Pulham St Mary the Virgin, and Southwold. East Harling’s east window and the modelling style of the Ranworth group shown similarities to them, and the use of tiled flooring reoccurs among the Ranworth group.
The screens can all be attributed to the same group of painters, who perhaps spanned across two generations. The rood screen at Great Plumstead (destroyed by fire in 1891), and an unfinished panel of St Apollonia at St Augustine’s, Norwich, are both included in the Ranworth group, on stylistic grounds.
The evidence of bequests, the jointing techniques used, the age of the wood used, and the use of certain stencils, make it possible to safely set the panels as coming from a single workshop, and to date them as being produced between the 1470s and c.1500.
Six of the screens, including Ranworth and St James Pockthorpe, share an identical flower pattern - the same tool was used, and it must have lasted a long time before it was discarded. On the panels at St Mary Magdalene, one stencil exactly matches a pattern found at St Nicholas, North Walsham, and the Southwold and North Walsham panels also share a pattern. One of the stencils at North Walsham is a little different from the more widely used one, but no similar tool was ever used on screens outside the Ranworth group.
The panel of the Archangel Michael, which can be seen at Ranworth Church, Norfolk
Lucy Wrapson from The Hamilton Kerr Institute, Fitzwilliam Museum, examines the panels for dating and authenticity in 2012.
Sources and further information
Long, Sydney (1961). The History of the Church and Parish of St. James with Pockthorpe, Norwich. Ramsgate: The Church Publishers.
Wrapson, Lucy (2012). "East Anglian Rood-screens: the Practicalities of Production". In Binski, P.; New, E. (eds.). Patrons and Professionals in the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the 2010 Harlaxton Symposium (Conference paper). Donington. pp. 386–404. ISBN 978-19077-3-012-2.
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