A Fourteenth-Century Pulpitum Screen at Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire

Tintern is one of the best-known monastic sites in the British Isles, even if its architectural history is less well understood than assertions in the general literature might suggest. This study focusses upon a distinct group of ex situ masonry fragments until recently dispersed across the site. As reconstructed on paper, the material represents the remarkable ‘rediscovery’ of a hitherto unattributed fourteenth-century pulpitum screen. The stylistic context for the feature lies largely within the great architectural lodges of south-west England. There are strong grounds for suggesting that its designer was the innovative master, William Joy. If this attribution is correct, the commission is probably to be dated to the later 1320s, and no later than c 1330. The fact that the patrons for this prestigious work were the White Monks of Tintern serves only to underline its importance. From the surviving evidence, the construction of such an elaborate pulpitum within a British Cistercian context appears to have been an especially rare occurrence.