King Henry VI, Rood Screen, Barton Turf Church

This is a striking example of popular pre-Refrmation piety at a rural Church in Norfolk.

There is one of the best medieval painted Rood Screens in the country, with fabulous paintings of the Orders of Angels.

In the south aisle there are 4 more paintings of greatly inferior quality but not interest. There are four Kings: this one of Henry VI, St Edmund of course the King and Martyr and patron saint of East Anglia, St Edward the Confessor and St Olaf of Norway.

A fascinating selection - Olaf he warrior King of Norway perhaps being popular with the Danes who settled in eastern Norfolk. Edmund the local hero who fought the Danes. Edward the saintly Anglo-Danish King and Henry VI, the weak but saintly son of Henry VI, deposed by the Yorkists.

When these pictures were painted Henry must have been a recent memory for many. Although not made a Saint, many in England thought he should have been.