Our 1522 Tudor ‘Screen’
Our distinguished Tudor panelling adorned a dining room wall of the Old Priory, the former parsonage, until 1961 when it was installed in the sitting room of the modern vicarage. There it remained until 1983, when the sanctuary was reordered and curtained, and the panelling was installed as the reredos behind the high altar (when it came to be known as the ‘Tudor Screen’).
In 2016, the carvings were moved once again to their current setting on the wall of the north-east chapel. Both the panels, once hidden behind plaster in the old vicarage, and the Victorian reredos they once concealed, are now beautifully illuminated under the 2021 church lighting scheme.
The story of how these historic panels which commemorate a royal marriage came to Steyning was forgotten until Lynda Denyer researched and published an article in the Steyning Museum newsletter. This can be found in context on the Museum website (here and here), or downloaded as a four-page document here.
Click here for more details, photographs and an audio description on the website of the Friends of Steyning Parish Church website.
Click here for the information sheet provided for visitors to the church.
You can read more about the overall history of our church here.
Image ©2019 Michael Garlick
from www.geograph.org.uk
Licensed for reuse
under Creative Commons.
