Kirkburn / Chillon

Results: 33 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B1R01: New Testament - events from Resurrection to Pentecost - Ascension?

Scene Description: Christ in Majesty -or Ascension of Christ. Horseshoe mandorla, figure of Christ with cruciform on head. Hands raised in orant pose. Two angel hold the mandorla. To the right, figure holding book. A figure holding bishop's staff. To the right again, a figure holds his right elbow with left hand, right hand raised across his chest -- on the southwest side of the font [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

B1R02: New Testament - public life of Christ - baptism of Christ - in a font

Scene Description: Baptism of Christ. Figure holding book in left hand, branch in right hand held across chest. On the left, a cylindrical font with a small child inside, showing head and neck. A bird from above descends. To the right of the font, full frontal holds a book in left hand and right hand extended toward the head of the figure in the font. A cruciform on head of standing figure -- on the east side of the font [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

B1R03: human figure - male - 2 - with book - other holds hands across chest

Scene Description: a figure standing, frontal, holding hands across his chest. To the right follows a figure holding a book with both hands -- on the northeast side of the basin [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

B1R04: Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Peter - charging of the keys

Scene Description: The scene has two figures. The one on the left, has cruciform, handles two large keys, to figure on right. Christ is giving St. Peter his keys. S. Peter holds a book to his chest with his left hand and recieves the keys with his right. To the right, a figure holds his hand in a grieve pose. The last figure to the right holds a chalice at waist height -- on the north side of the font [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

B2R01: Christ - Agnus Dei

Scene Description: FIRST SCENE ON LOWER REGISTER. Lower register separated by a braid. Under the mandorla, the Agnus Dei facing left -- on the south side of the basin [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

B2R02: human figure - male - hunter - with axe - abulous animal or monster

Scene Description: Lower Register. To the right of Agnus Dei, a figure carries a large axe on his shoulder. To the right, a serpent, back to back with a bird. The serpent faces left and bird faces right -- on the southeast side of the basin [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

B2R03: animal - mammal - lion - snake - fighting

Scene Description: Lower Register. A lion faces right and holds something in his front paws - a snake? -- on the east side of the basin, approximately below the baptismal scene [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

B2R04: animal - fabulous animal or monster - dragon

Scene Description: A serpent with double twist in tail. Situated to the left of triquetta symbol -- on the northeast side of the basin [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

B2R05: symbol - triquetra

Scene Description: Lower Register. Triquetta -- on the northeast side of the basin [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

B2R06: fables - fable of Reynard the Fox - Reynard the fox?

Scene Description: Lower Level: A large fox (?) being led by a leash by a man facing right and holding a club on his right shoulder -- on the north side of the basin [NB: orientation is approximate]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - intersecting arches

Scene Description: on part of the upper basin side

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

design element - motifs - braid

Scene Description: separating the upper and lower registers on the basin sides

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

design element - motifs - circle - intersecting

Scene Description: on part of the upper basin side

Image Source: photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

inscription

Scene Description: faintly visible to the right of the priest, at shoulder height

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of basin - interior

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of basin - interior

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 15 July 1998 by BSI

view of font - east side

Image Source: photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of font - north side

Image Source: photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of font - northeast side

Image Source: photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of font - side 1

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font - side 2

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font - side 3

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font - side 4

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font - side 5

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font - side 6

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font - south side

Image Source: photograph taken 22 May 1993 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of font - southwest side

Image Source: digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of font - west side

Image Source: digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of font in context

Image Source: photograph by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 26 May 2004)

view of font in context

Image Source: Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 28 June 2004)

view of font in context - southeast side

Image Source: digital photograph taken 4 June 2013 by Timothy Marlow

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

INFORMATION

FontID: 00133KIR

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: Main Street, Kirkburn, East Riding of Yorkshire YO25 9DY

Country Name: England

Location: East Riding of Yorkshire (Humberside), Yorkshire and the Humber

Directions to Site: Located about 50 km E of York, just SW of Driffield

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of York

Historical Region: Hundred of Driffield

Font Location in Church: In the centre of the nave , W end, to the left of the south door.

Date: ca. 1140?

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

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Hinson, of www.yorkshireCDbooks.com, for the added photographs of this font.

Church Notes: Kirkburn church is believed to have been built ca. 1153. It is the twin church of Garton Church (Garton-on-the-Wolds) three miles to the north. Magnificent Norman zig-zag chancel arch.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Kirkburn [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SE9755/kirkburn/] [accessed 20 July 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Moule (1837) writes: "The font, richly sculptured, is defaced by whitewash." Noted in Allen (1851): "At the west end is a small gallery, and a circular font with interlaced arches", with date in the "Anglo-Norman period". Described and illustrated (etching by J. Brown) in Milner, Waller and Bell (1852) [NB: Milner refers to an illustration shwing part of this font by E.W. Brailey in 1834, and Allen's"an account" of it as "the only account of of it that has been published". Milner (ibid.) writes: "The upper row of figures I apprehend to represent the sacrament of baptism [...] and argues against Allen's identification: "and could neber be meant, I think, to represent the resurrection, as stated by Allen"; Milner further identifies a figure on the side bearing "a sprig of rosemary, or rue"; the centre group is identified as St. Peter "receiving from the Saviour the keys of heaven", the figure of Christ "represented with a nimbus, or glory, around the head. The group on the right hand I think is intended to represnt regeneration, or new birth", the haloed child figure identified as "spiritual birth", the other figures being participants in the process; the "hieroglyphical device" on the font, which Allen had identified as "a true lover's knot', is instead reckoned, together with the figures to the left and right, "to represent redemption and remission, as indissolubly united, and the square as implying its universality, or the length and breadth of the world"; the serpent is "the beast that beguiled Eve"; the cat devouring a mouse, "another strong example of carnality"; the bird and serpent, obscured by the damage on the stone, "may have been intended to represent a cockatrice [...] another type of evil; on the extreme left we have a satanis figure with the axe, an emblem of destruction, over his shoulder. On the right [...] we have the lamb bearing the cross, the emblem of Christianity." Milner (ibid.) suggests a Saxon maker and a pre-Conquest date, and admits that other antiquaries differ in their interpretation of the Kirkburn font programme. In his additional comments ti Milner's, Waller (ibid.) states that "Mr. Milner has fallen into the common error of attempting an elucidation of a work of a remote age, by thoughts suggested in the present", describes the programme as child-like, and rejects any "recondite meaning" in it. Waller (ibid.) accepts three motifs on the font: "the Baptism of Christ [...] the charge to Peter [...] and the Ascension"; the haloed child in the font, argues Waller, must be Christ, "the dove descending above upon him, puts all question at once aside". Waller (ibid.) identifies the Ascention scene as "unmistakable", even if it lacks the sophistication of those in the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, the tympanum in Mayence cathedral, the western doors of the cathedral of Rochester, and others, especially the mutilated one at Newbald, in Yorkshire. Waller (ibid.) further suggests that the animals on the font are part of an allegory on the sacrad scenes on it. On the age of the font Waller (ibid.) argues -as Bond (1908) would half a century later- that "It has been too much the custom to give an earlier date to such works than circumstances warrant" and states that "it dates no earlier than the eleventh century"; interestingly he argues that distinctions are made between Saxon and Norman work "when in fact none existed", and adds "The term Romanesque is more correct as applied to both, because both were imitations of the debased classic style, and were necessarily feeble in a period of great ignorance of scientific construction." Bell (ibid.), however, argues that, despite the protestations by others, the programme on the Kirkburn font must be regarded as "an early instant of secular fables used for church discipline, and perhaps as the very earliest document, graphic or epistolary, of the myth of Reynard the Fox". Noted in Glynne's November 1865 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007): "The font is a most curious ancient Norman specimen, cylindrical in form, with intersecting arches round its rim, and a number of varied courses of other ornaments, interlacing scrolls, a course of round arches, a sort of net work, and at the base a number of rude figures of saints, one in a val with a nimbus. Some of the figures carry crosiers, and below are figures of animals, holy lambs, birds, etc., but the whole is very difficult to describe, and requires to be illustrated by a drawing." [NB: this last suggestion is noted by Butler (ibid.): "A drawing and a photograph is provided by E. M. Cole in ASSRP, XXVI (1901-2), 410-11." Romilly Allen (1884) notes a Latin cross and "the Agnus Dei associated with animal forms [...] the Agnus Dei carries the cross, but has no nimbus; on the left is a man with a club over his shoulder, leading a beast with a collar round its neck, which is attached by a cord to the man's right ankle; on the right is a man with an axe over his shoulder, followed by a coiled serpent, a bird, a beast treading on a serpent, a serpent tied in a knot, and a geometrical pattern within a square." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as one of "a highly remarkable series of elaborately carved Norman fonts which occur on the Wolds" [the others are: Cottam, Cowlam and East Grimston]. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a Norman unmounted cylindrical font with vertical sides; under the rim a band of ornament with intercrossing arches and interlacing; scenes are framed between the upper band and a braided motif 2/3 down the side of the bowl: the Baptism of Christ; Christ showing the keys to Peter; Crucifixion; Ascension: Christ wears cruciferous nimbus and bestows benediction in the presence of two angels; under the dividing braid the Agnus Dei faces a figure with a club on its shoulder leading a bear (?) by a leash. Noted in Hobson (1924). Described and illustrated in Tyrrell-Green (1928). Photographed by John Piper. Tisdall (1988?), without his usual flair for exageration and outlandish interpretation, describes a scene under the braid in which "a devilish cat pounces on a defenceless mouse". In Wood (1999) and (2003) [NB: Wood remarks that the animal interpreted by some (?) as a salamander, "is a snake representing the Devil".] On-site notes: the lower register depicts the Agnus Dei, a man with an axe, a man with a club leading an animal, a knotted serpent, a bird with a small serpent beside it, a cat with a long tail and its paw on a mouse [it has also been suggested that this is the story of Reynard the Fox]. The basin well is lead-lined. The font is raised on a two-stepped plinth with extension for the priest. Mann (1985: 30-31), after ennumerating the different elements of the program concludes that this font "has two themes: the upper zone showing the joys of salvation, and the lower concerned with the perils which surround men, and the dangers of Hell". Mann (ibid., p. 48) suggests the date of the church, ca. 1140, as the date of the font as well.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 53.982053, -0.507087

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 53° 58′ 55.39″ N, 0° 30′ 25.51″ W

UTM: 30U 663464 5984402

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Number of Pieces: one

Font Shape: tub-shaped (cylindrical)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: Lead lining in the basin well

Rim Thickness: 14-15 cm

Diameter (inside rim): 68 cm

Diameter (includes rim): 95-98 cm

Basin Depth: 35 cm

Basin Total Height: 96 cm

Font Height (less Plinth): 96 cm [calculated]

Font Height (with Plinth): 131 cm

Notes on Measurements: BSI on-site

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: numbers

Inscription Notes: To the right of Christ in the Baptism scene is the year 1718 incised with what appears to be an "M" and other letters

Inscription Location: Basin side

Inscription Text: "[?] M [?] 1718"

Inscription Source: BSI on-site

REFERENCES

Allen, J. Romilly, "Notes on Early Christian Symbolism", N.S., VI, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1884, pp. 380-464; r["References"]

Allen, Thomas, A new and complete history of the County of York […] illustrated by a series of views […] by N. Whittock, London: Published by L. T. Hinton, 1851

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

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

Glynne, Stephen Richard, The Yorkshire notes of Sir Stephen Glynne (1825-1874), Woodbridge: The Boydell Press; Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 2007

Hobson, Bernard, The East Riding of Yorkshire (with York), Cambridge: At the University Press, 1924

Kroesen, Justin E.A., The Interior of the medieval village church = Het middeleeuwse Dorpskerkinterieur, Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2004

Mann, Faith, Early Medieval Church Sculpture: a Study of 12th Century Fragments in East Yorkshire, Beverley: Hutton Press, 1985

Milner, J.G., "Remarks on the Sculptured Font in Kirkburn Church, near Driffield, Yorkshire", 7, The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1852, pp. 38-52; r["References"]

Moule, Thomas, The English counties delineated; or, A topographical description of England [...], London: George Virtue, 1837 [vol. 2]

Tisdall, M. W., God's beasts: identify and understand animals in church carvings, England: Charlesfort Press, 1998?

Tyack, George Smith, Lore and legend of the English Church, London: W. Andrews, 1899

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

Wood, Rita, "Real People in English Romanesque Sculpture", Summer 1999, 11, Medieval Life: The Magazine of the Middle Ages, 1999, pp. [8]-15; r["References"]

Wood, Rita, "The Augustinians and the Romanesque Sculpture in Kirkburn church", 4 (2003), East Yorkshire Historian, 2003, pp. 3-59; r["References"]