A staircase which leads to nowhere is bound to create an impression of mystery to any normally inquisitive mind. Schoolchildren on visits to the church love to have the chance to ascend the narrow spiral stairs until their heads pop out of the wall. But it's eyes which pop out when you tell them that the staircase was for the Rood (pronounced rude) Screen.
One almost expects to find graffiti on the wall! 

Actually the Rood was a large crucifix that surmounted a heavy wooden screen that stretched between the church naive and chancel at this point. A loft ran across the upper part of the screen from which candles could be lit and replaced. The staircase in our parish church once provided access to the Mediaeval Rood Loft which stood there.

During the great Reformation of the sixteenth century a new and simpler understanding of the Christian faith gained ascendency in the Church of England. The Holy Communion was no longer seen as the sacrifice of the Mass to be conducted behind a Rood screen away from the gaze of the common people. It is the Lord's Supper — the Fellowship Meal of the whole Christian family. In 1550 the Bishop of London, Nicolas Ridley, ordered that all stone altars and Rood screen should be removed from the churches in his diocese. From that day the hole in the wall has remained there, a reminder that ours is a reformed and Protestant church. Sadly the good bishop was burned at the stake under Queen Mary in 1555— a martyr for his evangelical faith.