The front of the rood screen at St Peter’s, Buckland‑in‑the‑Moor is one of the most striking survivals in the church, a sweep of late‑medieval carving and painting that still holds its colour and presence after five centuries. Standing before it, you can see why Devon’s screens are so admired: the delicate tracery, the slender uprights, and the painted panels below that once formed a vivid visual guide to the central stories of the Christian faith. Even in the soft light of the church, the figures remain clear and expressive, their faces and gestures shaped by craftsmen who understood both devotion and storytelling.
The sequence begins with the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus, followed by the three Kings bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Next come the scenes of the Annunciation, with Gabriel and the lily of purity, and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, appears nearby, a reminder of the wider family story that medieval worshippers would have known well. Further along are the Apostles: St John with his Gospel book, St James, and a figure thought to be St Peter holding the keys. The final panel in the surviving sequence shows St Andrew with his diagonal cross. Several panels are damaged or lost, but enough remain to give a strong sense of the original rhythm and intention of the screen.
Above the painted panels rises the intricate openwork of the upper screen, its arches and cusps catching the light from the chancel beyond. This upper section was restored in the early twentieth century by Ethel Pinwell, whose work blends so naturally with the medieval carving that it is easy to overlook where one ends and the other begins. Her restoration returned the screen to something close to its original height and balance, without attempting to recreate the lost rood loft that once stood above it.
Seen from the nave, the front of the screen still performs the role it was designed for: marking the threshold between the everyday space of the congregation and the more formal, ordered world of the chancel. Its painted figures, though centuries old, continue to draw the eye and shape the experience of entering the church. In a building where so much history survives, the rood screen remains one of the clearest links to the medieval parish that once gathered here, and one of the most beautiful features of St Peter’s.
