Most impressive #DoorInMidAir from the #ScamperDownTheSomersetCoast #EastQuantoxheadToDunster leg: #StGeorgeDunster. Once giving access from the stair turret to the top of a screen between quire and crossing. Probably a rood loft. And chamfered #Ogee headed too #AdoorableThursday

Thursday wouldn't be Thursday without a #DoorInMidAir. The rood loft may be long gone, but the rood stair has found a new role here at #StPeterPortishead. The #PortisheadToWestonSuperMare leg of the #ScamperDownTheSomersetCoast for #DoorwayThursday

The winner of supreme screen from the #PortisheadToWestonSuperMare leg of the #ScamperDownTheSomersetCoast is #StPaulKewstoke

Screen with rood group. Before the English Reformation every church had a rood screen. Now few remain, the only reminder a #DoorInMidAir #Woodensday

Another #DoorInMidAir from #StGeorgeDunster #Somerset

This shows that a rood loft (and screen) once separated the choir arch from the crossing. It's interesting that this was lost while the more substantial choir screen across the width of the church survived

Hard to get the right angle, but the left photo shows the door used to access the top of the C15 screen, which suggests that it once housed a rood. To the right the stair turret, unusual as it positioned within the length of the nave #StGeorgeDunster #Somerset #DoorInMidAir

Mouse off to bed leaving you with a mysterious #DoorInMidAir. It has the hallmarks of access to a rood loft. The problem is the doors are in the wrong place because they are aligned with the middle of the nave, not the chancel arch #StDecumanWatchet #Somerset #DoorwayThursday

Nave. Adjacent to crossing arch #StAndrewStogursey #Somerset for #AdoorableThursday

A #DoorInMidAir but sadly also #AdoorNoMore. This and the accompanying rood screen and loft (now lost) would have been part of the late C15 nave rebuild. It would only be used for 50 years or so

The height of this #DoorInMidAir shows that the rood loft was somewhat higher than the current parclose (and rood screen) are now. Perhaps this isn't the original screen or maybe the rood loft was a separate structure above, now lost #StMaryCannington #Somerset #AdoorableThursday

Is this the ultimate composition for church photography Mouse wonders. Stained glass, Perpendicular window, C15 pulpit, parclose and rood screen, but most importantly a #DoorInMidAir
#StMaryCannington #Somerset for #AdorrableThursday

Alas most (nearly all in fact) rood screens were removed during the English Reformation. Removing all of that papist mystery and allowing the congregation a good view of the eucharist. Hence Mouse's fascination with the idea of the #DoorInMidAir, a reminder of the magnificent rood screens sadly lost

This week's #DoorInMidAir unusually has a purpose. The door to the rood stair below is rather ornate compared to most #StPaulKewstoke #Somerset

Beautiful rood screen with rood and loft. Erected in 1939 but it shows how every medieval church would once have looked until big beardy ruined everything. This also shows the purpose of the #DoorInMidAir that Mouse often remarks on in churches #StPaulKewstoke #Somerset

A by now familiar sight in Somerset churches with no north aisle; window, pulpit and doors to rood stair
#StLawrenceWick #Somerset for #AdoorableThursday and a #DoorInMidAir

This week's #DoorInMidAir from Mouse #AllSaintsKingstonSeymour #Somerset for #AdoorableThursday

Still intact, but the rood stair itself in the thickness of the wall and the external lean-to rood turret is now inaccessible

North of nave. Adjacent to crossing arch #StAndrewClevedon #Somerset #AdoorableThursday

This week's vestigial #DoorInMidAir. Once accessing the rood loft, now left redundant and dangling

(the metal winch bears a projector screen. Even the Almighty comes in digital form now)

The current chancel screen #StPeterWestonInGordano #Somerset is set at the height of the now lost rood screen. This #DoorInMidAir was then used to access a walkway across the top; a rood loft (Mouse imagine it was used to give Jesus a dust every now and again) #AdoorableThursday

The Listing claims that the rood stairs were repurposed to provide an ingenious route to the C16 pulpit. The stairs are set into the small external turret but these doors are too far up the nave to be rood stairs #StPeterPortishead #Somerset #AdoorableThursday #DoorInMidair (1/2)

The #BestofTheRiverAxeChurches #Somerset: Churches with with a #DoorInMidAir (or more) #StAndrewLoxton #StAndrewCheddar #StPeterBleadon #AdoorableThursday

A recent Mouse passion, all things rood #ItWouldBeRoodNotTo

(to see more of each church just click the named #)

This week's #DoorInMidAir is set in a hollow moulded pseudo-4-centred doorway. The door itself is a modern replacement. Although the rood loft to which it gave access is long gone it retains a door handle. Attention to detail. It's all about attention to detail #AdoorableThursday

Today's #DoorInMidAir from #StAndrewLoxton #Somerset. Narrow in-situ chamfered pseudo-4-centred arch doorway with planked door. Led to former rood loft. This area has a truly impressive range of these survivors #AdoorableThursday

Door to (now lost) rood loft #StJamesWinscombe #Somerset #AdoorableThursday

Today's #DoorInMidAir and another chance to see this amazing rood turret

A second #DoorInMidAir #StJohnAxbridge #Somerset #AdoorableThursday

This leading from the rood turret, between crossing and nave suggests that the church had two rood screens (possibly not co-existing) the other (seen earlier) being between crossing and chancel

Mouse love a #DoorInMidAir and this (top right) is a corker. Presumably it opened to a rood loft above a screen across the arch between the crossing and the chancel (foreground). Apart from anything else, how lovely is this church? #StJohnAxbridge #Somerset #AdoorableThursday

Mouse's #DoorInMidAir. Long redundant access to a rood loft from the stair turret at the north west corner of the crossing tower #StMaryWedmore #Somerset #AdoorableThursday