Stottesdon / Stottesden / Stodesdone
Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Results: 32 records
BU04: design element - motifs - floral - 4-petal - in a circle - beaded-tape
view of font - southwest side
view of font - northwest side
view of font
view of font
view of font and cover - east side
view of font and cover - northeast side
view of font and cover - south side
view of font and cover - west side
view of font and cover - northwest side
view of font in context
design element - motifs - interlace - quatrefoil - in a circle - beaded-tape
animal - bird - dove? - in a circle - beaded-tape
Scene Description: or is it a fabulous animal or monster, a griffin? the body, which appears reclined, faces right but the head is turned back, to the left
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - motifs - floral - 9-petal - in a circle - beaded-tape
view of basin
view of basin
animal - mammal - lion - head
design element - patterns - interlace - linked circles - 3-strand
design element - motifs - foliage
Christ - Agnus Dei - with cross - in a circle - beaded-tape
human figure - male - with object - unidentified
Scene Description: the figure is between two of the large beaded-tape circles: the one with birds on its left, the one with the 9-petal flower on its right -- on the north side of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: detail of photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
animal - mammal - lion - passant - in a circle - beaded-tape
animal - mammal - lion - passant-regardant - in a circle - beaded-tape
animal - bird - 2 - in a circle - beaded-tape
Scene Description: a large bird on the left, a small one on the right, both inscribed in a circle of beaded-tape -- on the north side of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: detail of photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
view of church exterior - south portal - tympanum
view of church exterior - portal - tympanum - detail
Scene Description: Human figure[s], animal and symbols -- NB: the image has been rotated 180 degrees to help in the identification of the elements
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church exterior - south portal - tympanum - detail
view of church exterior - south view
view of church exterior - south porch
design element - motifs - vine - 2
Scene Description: parallel vines: one around the top of the circular lower base, the other around the vertical side, separated by a thin moulding
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - patterns - interlace - 3-strand
Scene Description: unlike the one on the basin side, this interlace is very regular and even, forming large motifs around the stem
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
INFORMATION
Font ID: 00072STO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Date Visited: 2000-07-18
Font Date: 1130s? / 1140s? / ca. 1160?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Norman
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Herefordshire school
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary [aka St. Peter]
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end, S side
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin [dedication in Domesday Book is St. Peter's]
Church Notes: In the vestry, now hidden inside the west tower, there is an early tympanum (Saxon?) well-worth a visit; the lower stone, the lintel, appears to have been placed upside-down, has a pair of facing lions and some abstract motifs on it
Church Address: Stottesdon, South Shropshire, DY14 8UH
Site Location: Shropshire, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B4363, 13 kms SW of Bridgnorth, about the same distance WNW of Kidderminster
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Hereford
Historical Region: Hundred of Conditre [in Domesday] -- Hundred of Stottesdon
Additional Comments: disappeared font? (the one from the Domesday-time church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for Stottesdon [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SO6782/stottesdon/] [accessed 19 February 2015]; it mentions a church in it. The font here is illustrated in an engraving from a drawing by Rev. J. Brooke, del., in Eyton (1859- ) and in Anderson (1864) [NB: Anderson notes that the Domesday Book has the dedication as St. Peter's]. A description of the church and font here was read by the then rector, the Rev. William Purton, to the 1867 Congress of the British Archaeological Association (London, 1868), p. 201. Timmins (1899) writes: "Stottesdon church has one of the finest Norman fonts in the county. It is ornamented with an interlaced border, and other enrichments". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Norman period [NB: C&H use the form "Stottesden"]. Described in Bond (1908) as a chalice font of the Norman period, ornamented with an Agnus Dei. Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a notable instance of elaborate Norman sculpture and note is made also of the Agnus Dei on it. [NB: Clapham (1934) lists a font at 'Stottesdon', but appears to mean 'Shottesdon']. Described and illustrated in Thurlby (1999) with stylistic links to the sculpture at Shobdon church, and a work of Herefordshire Scool of Romanesque Sculpture. Newman & Pevsner (2006) call this "The most sumpuous Norman font in Shropshire. A work of the Herefordshire school", and suggest "a date in the 1130s or 1140s seems most probable". On-site notes: the font consists of a hemispherical basin ornamented with a very broad band of interlace around the upper basin side; below it several images are contained within large circles of beaded-tape: an Agnus Dei, a lion, a quatrefoil, a four-leaf flower, a big bird with a little bird next to it; next, at the front, between two of the circles, a figure raises his/her arms holding up an unidentified object in each; next, again, inside roundels, is a 9-petal flower, then a lion and, finally, a griffin; all the other circles are linked by square lion heads; the spandrels have stick figures that look like plants; the upper and lower bases have deep interlace motif all around. The font is raised on a modern square plinth. The round and flat wooden font cover appears modern; Victorian?.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Timothy Marlow for his photographs of this font
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 535380 5810049
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 52.439496, -2.479523
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 52° 26′ 22.19″ N, 2° 28′ 46.28″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone
Number of Pieces: two?
Font Shape: hemispheric, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage System: centre hole in basin & base
Drainage Notes: lead-lined
Rim Thickness: 9-10 cm
Diameter (inside rim): 75 cm
Diameter (includes rim): 94-95 cm
Basin Depth: 40 cm
Basin Total Height: 50 cm
Height of Base: 50 cm
Height of Central Column: 30 cm
Font Height (less Plinth): 100 cm
Font Height (with Plinth): 122 cm
Notes on Measurements: BSI on-site
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern?
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: round and flat, with metal decoration and ring handle; appears modern, perhaps Victorian
REFERENCES
- Anderson, John Corbet, Shropshire, its early history and antiquities, comprising […], London: Willis and Sotheran, 1864, pl. 276
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 50n, 167
- Clapham, Alfred William, English Romanesque Architecture after the Conquest, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934, p. 155 ["Shottesdon]
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 215
- Crossley, Frederick Herbert, English Church Craftsmanship: an Introduction to the Work of the Mediaval Period and Some Account of Later Developments, London: B.T. Batsford, 1941, p. 16
- Eyton, Robert William, The Antiquities of Shropshire, London: John Russell Smith, 1856-, vol. 4: 156
- Friar, Stephen, The Sutton Companion to Churches, Thrupp, Stroud (Gloucs.): Sutton Publishing, 2003, p. 202 ["Strottesdon"]
- Newman, John, Shropshire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, p. 616 and pl. 17
- Thurlby, Malcolm, The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture, Logaston, Herefs.: Logaston Press, 1999, p. 148-150
- Timmins, H. Thornhill, Nooks and corners of Shropshire, London: Elliot Stock, 1899, p. 203
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 53, 57, 61