Stottesdon / Stottesden / Stodesdone

Results: 32 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

BU04: design element - motifs - floral - 4-petal - in a circle - beaded-tape

Scene Description: on the northeast side of the basin

Image Source: detail of photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

Christ - Agnus Dei - with cross - in a circle - beaded-tape

Scene Description: the lamb faces right -- on the south side of the basin

Image Source: detail of photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

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

Image Source: detail of photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

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

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

animal - mammal - lion - head

Scene Description: at each place where the beaded-tape circles meet they are linked by a beautiful lion head of the Norman/Scandinavian type -- 3 of them visible here

animal - mammal - lion - passant

Scene Description: on the southeast side of the basin

animal - mammal - lion - passant - in a circle - beaded-tape

Scene Description: facing right, tail over its back

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-regardant - in a circle - beaded-tape

Scene Description: on the west side of the basin

Image Source: detail of photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

design element - motifs - floral - 9-petal - in a circle - beaded-tape

Scene Description: cart-wheel like -- on the west side of the basin [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

design element - motifs - foliage

Scene Description: at each spandrel formed by the large circles there is a single foliage motif shaped almost like a person with extended arms -- seen here on the south side of the basin, above the lion heads, left and right of the Agnus Dei

design element - motifs - interlace - quatrefoil - in a circle - beaded-tape

Scene Description: with added strands -- on the east side of the basin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

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

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

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

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

design element - patterns - interlace - linked circles - 3-strand

Scene Description: very irregular and uneven, all around the basin sides

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

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 basin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of basin

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

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

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of church exterior - south porch

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of church exterior - south portal - tympanum

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of church exterior - south portal - tympanum - detail

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of church exterior - south view

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of font - northwest side

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of font - southwest side

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 18 July 2000 by BSI

view of font and cover - east side

Scene Description: [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of font and cover - northeast side

Scene Description: [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of font and cover - northwest side

Scene Description: [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of font and cover - south side

Scene Description: [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of font and cover - west side

Scene Description: [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: photograph taken 16 August 1981 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of font in context

Image Source: engraving from a drawing by Rev. J. Brooke, del., in Eyton (1859- ) and in Anderson (1864)

Copyright Instructions: PD

INFORMATION

FontID: 00072STO

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary [aka St. Peter]

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin [dedication in Domesday Book is St. Peter's]

Church Location: Stottesdon, South Shropshire, DY14 8UH

Country Name: England

Location: Shropshire, West Midlands

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

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end, S side

Date: 1130s? / 1140s? / ca. 1160?

Century and Period: 12th century, Norman

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Herefordshire school

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Timothy Marlow for his photographs of this font

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

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

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?.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.439496, -2.479523

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 26′ 22.19″ N, 2° 28′ 46.28″ W

UTM: 30U 535380 5810049

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone

Number of Pieces: two?

Font Shape: hemispheric (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

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

Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908

Clapham, Alfred William, English Romanesque Architecture after the Conquest, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934

Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907

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

Eyton, Robert William, The Antiquities of Shropshire, London: John Russell Smith, 1856-

Friar, Stephen, The Sutton Companion to Churches, Thrupp, Stroud (Gloucs.): Sutton Publishing, 2003

Newman, John, Shropshire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006

Thurlby, Malcolm, The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture, Logaston, Herefs.: Logaston Press, 1999

Timmins, H. Thornhill, Nooks and corners of Shropshire, London: Elliot Stock, 1899

Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928