History page 3
ROOD SCREEN & GREAT MURAL
The Rood Screen, replacing one installed in 1519 but removed during the Reformation, was installed as a war memorial to the Town's Glorious Dead in 1920. It was designed by G. H. Fellowes Prynne. The Rood (i.e. image of the Cross) mirrors the same moment from the crucifixion as depicted in the Great East Window.
Soaring above the Rood, is the Great Mural, designed in 1891 by the Revd E. Geldart, a curate of the Parish. It represents the Vision of the Adoration of the Lamb from the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine (Rev.5:1-14). Central is the Lamb of God upon His throne, bearing the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew name of YHWH. He is surrounded by the archangels, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, Martyrs and Saints. The Virgin Mary is acclaimed by the banner "Ave Maria, gratia plena" ("Hail Mary, full of grace"). Above and below the whole scene is the acclamation: "Salus Deo nostro qui sedet super thronum et Agno in saecula saeculorum" ("Blessed is our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, world without end"). The small windows represent the brilliant light of God the Father on His throne. The figures, if not the composition, are in flamboyant Pre-Raphaelite style and the whole is clearly based on Hubrecht & Jan van Eyck's altarpiece on the same subject in Ghent Cathedral (c.1432).