The reverse of the rood screen at St Peter’s, Buckland‑in‑the‑Moor is one of the most unusual survivals in the church. Medieval screens were almost always painted only on the side facing the nave, where the congregation would see the saints set out before them. Here, however, the back of the screen is painted as well, making it one of only three known examples in Devon. It suggests that the screen was intended to be appreciated from both sides, not simply as a boundary but as a structure with meaning for those who passed behind it as well as those who worshipped in front of it.
The imagery on the reverse is strikingly different from the more familiar saints on the front. One figure appears to wear a turban and may represent Suleiman I, the Ottoman Sultan who expelled the Knights of St John from Rhodes in 1522. Beside him stands a Christian soldier, and other panels show what seem to be merchants or noblemen. Their exact identities are now lost, but their presence hints at a parish that, despite its remote setting, was aware of the wider world and its concerns. It is rare to find such worldly imagery in a rural church, and rarer still to find it preserved on the hidden side of a screen.
Above the painted panels rises the restored upper section of the screen, added in the early twentieth century by Ethel Pinwell, one of the Pinwell sisters of Ermington. Her work reinstated the missing upper structure where the medieval rood loft once stood, blending new carving with the surviving medieval tracery with great sensitivity. The result restores the height and balance the original craftsmen intended, without overwhelming the medieval work beneath.
High above the screen, the small doorway that once led to the rood loft is still visible. Before the Reformation, the loft supported the great rood and provided a platform for candles, decoration and occasional ceremonial use. It may also have been used by musicians on feast days, but it was not a preaching platform, as was once assumed. During the Reformation, rood lofts across England were removed as part of the effort to simplify worship and eliminate structures associated with the old devotional system. At Buckland, the doorway survives as a reminder of the loft that once dominated the centre of the church.
Seen today, the screen is remarkable not only for its craftsmanship but for the layers of history it preserves. Medieval painters, Reformation iconoclasts and early twentieth‑century restorers have all left their mark. The painted reverse, the restored upper section and the surviving loft door together make this one of the most distinctive rood screens in Devon, and a rare witness to the changing life of the parish over the centuries.
