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Chancel (also called choir) screens became standard church furniture from the early 13th century; by the 15th century literally there was no church without its pictorial division between the space of the laity and the space of clerical performance. In England the screen was most common referred to as the Rood Screen, because of the standard practice of placing a large freestanding cross above the screens. A loft, and/or canopy of honor was invariably built across the uppermost portion of the chancel to further demarcate the space and give prominence to the Rood. These crosses were particularly subject to reformist zeal, and almost all have perished in the 17th-century purging of church imagery. The rood screen at South Creake (Norfolk) Our Lady Saint Mary, dates from the 15th century and is now provided with a painted rood (cross and figures) from the redundant church of St. Mary -at-the-Walls, Colchester. The three-dimension image of Christ on the Cross, often flanked by Mary, John or other mourners, was the most spectacular imagery in an church. It was not only a backdrop for sermons and plays, but also the identifying theme against which the mass, seen behind the screen in the chancel, was performed. The rood was invariably a part of Holy Week ceremonies. Covered and blocked from view by a hood or veil, when the cross was undraped is was as if the body of Christ were revealed as arriving or resurrected. Margery Kempe speaks of Palm Sunday when the veil covering the rood was lifted up in three stages while the priests sang and parishioners looked on (Ch. 78).
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