The Hereford Screen is a great

choir screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he starte ...

(1811–1878) and made by Coventry metalworking firm Skidmore & Co. for

Hereford Cathedral Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford in Hereford, England. A place of worship has existed on the site of the present building since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079. S ...

, England in 1862. It was one of the Gothic Revival works in

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

of the nineteenth century. When it was unveiled at the

1862 International Exhibition The International Exhibition of 1862, or Great London Exposition, was a world's fair. It was held from 1 May to 1 November 1862, beside the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, London, England, on a site that now houses ...

it was hailed as the "grandest and most triumphant achievement of modern architectural art". Weighing over eight tonnes, the screen is a mixture of wrought and cast iron,

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

semi-precious stones A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...

, and

mosaics A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

, supporting electroformed statues of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...

and attendant

angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

. In 1967 the screen was dismantled as it was no longer considered fashionable. It was stored in wooden packing cases at Coventry's Museum store a waiting for it to be re-erected in a new museum dedicated to Coventry's Industrial past, but funds were never available, (the only item ever being unpacked was the angel with the harp). So Coventry passed over the custodianship to the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

in 1984, but it was in very poor condition. In 2001, after a successful campaign to fund the largest conservation project ever undertaken by the Museum, the fully restored metal masterpiece was erected in pride of place, overlooking the main entrance.

Bibliography

External links

* {{cite web , publisher=

, url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/metalwork/metalwork_stories/hereford/index.html , title=The Hereford Screen , work=Metalwork , accessdate=2008-08-26 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080401101330/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/metalwork/metalwork_stories/hereford/index.html , archivedate=2008-04-01 Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum Artworks in metal George Gilbert Scott buildings and structures