Ranworth and its associated paintings: a Norwich workshop LUCY WRAPSON ABSTRACT In this paper, the medieval screen at Ranworth is associated with other surviving works from the same painting workshop using technical and stylistic means. The basis for this study is the surviving screenwork of Norfolk and Suffolk, which has been surveyed as a whole. 1 As part of this, paintings from the same workshop as those at Ranworth have been attributed and dated using technical means, including dendrochronology, and also on the basis of design, style and jointing techniques. The related works having been established, the Ranworth workshop is then examined in the light of recent work by David King concerning a multi-media workshop in Norwich responsible for brass, glass and rood-screen paintings. The paper concludes that it is indeed highly likely that the Ranworth painters were Norwich-based and that they were associated with craftsmen and workshops also responsible for brass-making and stained glass design. INTRODUCTION THE history of the screen at St Helen’s, Ranworth since its construction involves defacement and dismantling, 19th- and 20th-century renown, and a lucky escape from destruction by fire. 2 Ranworth’s is probably the best known rood-screen in the country and features prominently in both academic and popular studies of church history. 3 Following the 1865 survey of Norfolk’s screens instigated by the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, Ranworth, or Randworth as it was then known, was the first of five screens to be the subject of an illustrated monograph by Winter, as well as the subject of an article by Morant and L’Estrange. 4 Another short monograph was written about the screen by Strange in 1902, the sale of which funded restoration of the church. 5 In 1910, Pearson published a set of drawings of the Ranworth screen. 6 The Norfolk Broads’ status as a popular holiday destination by the late-19th century enhanced the wider popularity of Norfolk screens. Numerous late-Victorian and Edwardian picture postcards of screens testify to this. Dutt, whose 1903 guidebook to the Norfolk Broads was one of the less derivative tomes said: ‘Ranworth is not the least delightful of the Broads lying between Acle and Wroxham; but the parish is more famous for having in its church one of the finest and best-preserved rood-screens in the county. Indeed, the committee of the 1