Re the Pugin Rood Screen at St Chads (Source: Pugin Society newslatter):
The rood screen was removed from St Chad’s in a controversialreordering of the Cathedral in 1967.
A spokesman for those in favour of the screen’s removalstated that the arrangement of the church would then “conform more closely to the liturgical requirements resulting from the recent Vatican Council” by removing the divide between the priest and congregation, and that the “proposed changes would make the cathedral brighter and more attractive”.
The leading opponent of the reordering was the Victorian Society. One of its Council members, Nicholas Taylor, believed those changes to be “extremely unsympathetic to the qualities of Pugin’s design”. The Society especially objected to the removal of the rood screen. Mr Taylor continued: “The rood screen is an excellent example of Pugin’s work and incorporates late 15th century German statues collected by Pugin and his patron the Earl of Shrewsbury”.
Regardless of opposition, the removal of the rood
screen went ahead in June 1967. The Birmingham
Branch of the Victorian Society requested to be given
the screen in order to ensure its preservation. However, when in possession of the screen, they discovered that they
really had nowhere to store such a large item, which was nearly 30 feet square and weighed more than two tons. They
were delighted when Roderick Gradidge, a member of the London branch of the Victorian Society, proposed that it be moved to Holy Trinity, an Anglican church in Oxford
Road, Reading.