Lower Halstow / Halgastaw / Halegestow / Halegestowa / Halegestowe / Halgastow / Halgesto / Halstoe / Halstow / Halstowe / Heiligestowe

Permission received (email of 10 January 2005)

Results: 36 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

New Testament - Childhood and youth of Christ - Annunciation

Scene Description: are the two figures Mary and Gabriel, as argued by some? [cf. FontNotes] - the pattern is repeated around the basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

angel - wearing vestments - right hand pointing diagonally upwards to the right

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

angel - wearing vestments - right hand pointing diagonally upwards to the right - detail

Scene Description: female appearance; haloed; the top of the wings clearly visible here

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

design element - architectural - arcade - round arches - columns with capitals and bases

Scene Description: each of the arch-heads and columns in the base pattern pair are very distinct: one arch-head is roped or braided, the other decorated with a vine; one column is round and torsade, the other is polygonal and plain

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

design element - motifs - foliage

Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

human figure - standing - wearing crown - holding sceptre in right hand - floral sceptre

Scene Description: the crowned figure holding a floral sceptre; is it Mary? [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

human figure - standing - wearing crown - holding sceptre in right hand - floral sceptre

Scene Description: or is it Mary in the Annunciation? [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin

Scene Description: the basin showing the damage at the time

Image Source: digital image by Paul Wilson www.lowerhalstow.org.uk, 2004

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 10 January 2005)

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: showing the vine-decorated arch-head above the crowned figure

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: the crowned figure

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: showing the foliated arch-head above the crowned figure

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: showing the rope or braid pattern of the arch-head above the angel figure

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: showing the damage to the upper rim and northwest side of the basin [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: showing the damage on the northwest side [cf. FontNotes] of the basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: the north side of the basin; the object on the left is the couterweight of the font cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of basin - interior

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of church exterior - west view

Image Source: digital photograph [edited] taken 31 January 2011 by shirokazan [www.flickr.com/photos/11302107@N05/5408891814] [accessed 1 May 2013]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Scene Description: The font shown here in 1921, after the plaster covering the lead basin was removed

Image Source: digital image by Paul Wilson www.lowerhalstow.org.uk, 2004

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 10 January 2005)

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of font and cover

Scene Description: The font shown here as it was before the 1921 discovery [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image by Paul Wilson www.lowerhalstow.org.uk, 2004

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 10 January 2005)

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of font cover

Scene Description: the lower part said to be 17thC, with a 16thC dome

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

view of font cover - counterweight

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2012 by Colum Hourihane

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author

INFORMATION

FontID: 00110LOW

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Margaret of Antioch

Church Patron Saints: St. Margaret of Antioch [aka Margaret the Virgin, Marina]

Church Location: Church Path, Sheerness Road, Lower Halstow, Kent, ME9 7ED, United Kingdom

Country Name: England

Location: Kent, South East

Directions to Site: Located off the A2-A249 junction, half-way between Gillingham to the SW and Sittingbourne (11 km) to the SE, at the mouth of the Medway River

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Canterbury

Historical Region: Hundred of Milton [aka Middleton] -- Lath of Sherwinhope [aka Scray, Wiwarlet]

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Date: ca. 1150-1175? / ca. 1190?

Century and Period: 12th century (late?), Late Norman

Workshop/Group/Artisan: lead font

Cognate Fonts: Similar, though not identical, to the font at Dorchester. The font at Upavon has a similar Annunciation scene.

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Column Hourihane, of the Index of Christian Art, for his photographs of this font; and to Paul Wilson [www.lowerhalstow.org.uk/church/font.asp] for his permission to reproduce the images of the font.

Church Notes: original building may date to pre-Conquest times, showing Saxon herringbone pattern using salvaged Roman tiles

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

No idividual entry for Lower Halstow found in the Domesday survey. Halsted (1798) wrtites: "H[alstow lies] the next parish eastward from Upchurch, it is written in antient deeds Halegestow, and is usually called Lower Halstow, from its low situation, and to distinguish it from the parish of High Halstow, in the hundred of Hoo. The church, which stands close to the creek, is dedicated to St. Margaret; it consists of three small isles and one chancel, with a low pointed steeple, in which hang five bells, and has nothing remarkable in it. The church of Halstow was part of the antient possessions of the priory of Christ-church in Canterbury, as appears by the instrument of archbishop Baldwin, who came to the see of Canterbury in 1184, who, at the presentation of the prior and convent, granted to his beloved son John de London, nephew of the then blessed martyr Thomas, the church of St. Margaret of Halegestowa, in perpetual alms". There is no mention of any font in th Halsted's entry. Clayton (1929) relates how this lead font was discovered [in 1921] when the stone baptismal font of this church broke up and revealed that what had been thought of as its lead lining was in fact an early lead font in its own right. Crossley (1941) describes a lead baptismal font at "Lower Halston" [i.e., Lower Halstow] as being ornamented with excellent figurework [standing figures], like those at Dorchester, Wareham and Walton-on-the-Hill. Described and illustrated in Zarnecki (1957) who dates the font to the last quarter of the 12th century. In Newman (1976) with date ca. 1190 and a poor opinion of the figural work: "Under each arch a dainty insubstantial figure of a king and an angel, i.e. two moulds each used five times." Nordström, after Zarnecki, (1984) notes that "there are the figures of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel, represented four times all around the bowl" and points out that in Zarnecki's "S. Mary is taken for a king". The font is made up of a number of plates welded together in roughly the shape of a cylinder; there is one pattern that repeats itself around the sides: a pair of arches resting on columns with capitals and bases containing a pair of figures, one crowned and holding a sceptre, another, winged, pointing diagonally across to the upper right; the arch-heads are quite distinct: the one above the angel (?) is beaded or roped, whereas the one above the crowned figure is a vine; the columns on the sides are also different: one is round and decoeated with a torsade pattern, the other plain and polygonal; the spandrels of the arcade have foliated motifs; the rim is much damaged, and there is loss of leade surface towards the west side of the font [orientation at the time of the visit by C. Hourihane -- cf. images]. The argument for an Annunciation scene [cf. supra] on this font is not a strong one; the crowned figure holds a fleur-de-lis sceptre but does not appear distinctively female.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 22' 31.33" N, 0° 40' 16.54" E

UTM: 31U 337762 5693973

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: metal, lead

Font Shape: cylindrical (unmounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Notes on Measurements: [NB: for similar measurements cf. Index entry for the metal font at Dorchester Abbey]

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Notes: "There are letters above the pictures, however, they are so badly worn that we cannot tell what they say."

Inscription Location: above the images of the basin sides

Inscription Text: [illegible]

Inscription Source: www.lowerhalstow.org.uk

LID INFORMATION

Date: 16th-17th century?

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: square base of the 17thC, with eight-sided pointed Ogee dome of the 16thC

REFERENCES

Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958

Cautley, Henry Munro, Norfolk Churches, Ipswich: Norman Adlard & Co., 1949

Clayton, Brian C., "English Church Fonts of Ornamental Lead Work", X, no. 57, Apollo: a Journal of the Arts, 1929, pp. 133-138; r["References"]

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

Hasted, Edward, The History and topographical survey of the County of Kent [...], Canterbury: Printed for the author, by Simmons and Kirkby, 1778-

Newman, John, North East and East Kent, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976

Newman, John, West Kent and the Weald, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1980

Nordström, Folke, Mediaeval Baptismal Fonts: An Iconographical Study, Stockholm: Universitetet i Umeå, 1984

Zarnecki, George, English Romanesque Lead Sculpture: Lead Fonts of the Twelfth Century, London: A. Tiranti, 1957