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Rood Screen and Staircase
 To the left of the Carpenter chapel is the ancient
staircase that once led to the rood screen; this would have been a
massive structure spanning the nave and wide enough for clergy to
process across, and probably also accommodate musicians and choir. The
beam supporting this structure would have carried a central figure of
Christ on the cross, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John. Throughout
the country during the Reformation many rood screens were removed. In
Writtle, the chancel was thus opened to the nave until 1909, when a
carved oak screen with central archway was erected across the chancel
arch as a memorial to Robert Usborne.
The Usborne family were at one time owners of the
Writtle Brewery, and lived at "The House", Lodge Road,
demolished in 1921.
The screen across the South aisle was also given by Miss
Margaret Usborne in 1929 as a memorial to her brother killed on active
service in 1919. That on the North aisle was also erected in 1929 in
memory of another member of the Hardcastle family. Following the fire of
1974, the central screen was removed and used to screen the Nicholas
chapel.
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