Rood Screen Stair - Parish Church of St Peter, Benington, Hertfordshire. SG2 7BS.
Posted by: 
greysman
N 51° 53.736 W 000° 07.012
30U E 698368 N 5753355
The stairs to the rood screen are built into the north corner of the nave by the chancel arch.
Waymark Code: WMXKFK
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/24/2018
Views: 1
This parish church is Grade I listed. From the late C13th or early C14th, nave and chancel; c1330 north chapel and south porch; early C15th west tower before the roof was raised for the C15th clerestorey; restored 1889 by John Oldrid Scott. Built of flint rubble with stone dressings. Steep old red tile roof to the porch, chancel and similar roof, hipped at the east to the north chapel. The parapet hides a low pitched nave roof and there is an embattled parapet to the Hertfordshire spike on the tower.
The tall wide aisless nave is lit by windows at two levels, with a rood loft stair at the NE corner, and covered by a four-bay open timber roof. The lower walls and rood loft stairway were reputedly built by Sir John de Benstede who purchased the Manor of Benington in 1285. His widow, Petronilla, completed the work and his grandson improved it by adding the upper windows and replacing the thatched roof. The grandson's widow, also Petronilla, placed her arms in some windows and on the Tower in about 1370 (at the time of the Black Death). Outside the north wall clearly shows the later addition of the clerestory windows, while the rood loft stair vents are intriguing, small cross-shaped openings.
The rood screen, which is also no longer in existence, was part of the church furnishings that ran the full width of the church, enclosing chapels at the east ends of both north and south aisles as well as separating the nave from the chancel. In Medieval times the rood loft was where the Great Rood or 'Christ Crucified', a large carved figure of Christ on the cross, was placed, normally supported by statues of saints, the Virgin Mary and St.John were favourites. The word rood is derived from the Saxon word rood or rode, meaning "cross" or "crucifix".