Bere Regis No. 1 / Bere
Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Results: 14 records
view of font in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - motifs - floral - 6-petal - in a circle
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches
Scene Description: note the damaged part [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of basin - interior
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church interior - detail
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church interior - detail
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church interior - detail
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - patterns - fluted
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 21 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of basin - detail
Scene Description: one of the repaired areas
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - plan, elevation, section and sketch
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 00251BER
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Date Visited: 2000-07-21
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Late Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. John the Baptist
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, left of the entrance
Church Patron Saint(s): St. John the Baptist
Church Notes: There is a set of curious carvings on the capitals of the nave depicting male human heads with a hand to the forehead; they are known as "the headache capitals".
Church Address: Southbrook, Bere Regis, Wareham BH20 7LH, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1929 471262
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the A31-A35 crossroads, about 11 km NW of Wareham
Historical Region: Hundred of Bere [Regis] [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: font cover issue: Laud ordered font covers to be fitted during the reign of Charles I, (ca. 1642-1649?), a period Hutton refers to as "the Laudian troubles" ; this is probably William Laud, lord bishop of Canterbury, who died in 1645 -- pursue? -- disappeared fonts? (the ones from the two churches listed in the Domsday survey)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are three entries for Bere [Regis] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SY8494/bere-regis/] [accessed 11 January 2023], of which the Land of Brictward the priest reports " 2 churches. 1.16 church lands" in it. A font here is noted in Hutchins (1774) as the most ancient feature of this church. Described in the Handbook for travellers… (1869): "The font is Norman, with intersecting arcades on the bowl." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Norman period. Holmes (1922) refers to it as Transitional. Long (1923) writes: "the font is of what is called the pedestal type, and consists of two portions divided by a heavy roll moulding, while on the sides of the upper portion are curious projections now much defaced, but which were probably originally meant for human heads." Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one in a group of Norman fonts the basins of which are decorated with an arcade of intersecting arches. Described and illustrated in Hutton (1976) as an exceptionally fine Norman font which should be compared to the one at Avebury [cf. Index entry for Avebury]; Hutton (ibid.) further informs that the basin was damaged during the "Laudian troubles under Charles I (when Laud ordered font/covers to be fitted)" [ca. 1642-1649? -- reference likely to William Laud, lord bishop of Canterbury, who died in 1645]. In the RCHM (1970). In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Norman, big. of cauldron shape, with intersecting arches." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SY8474094755] notes: "Parish Church. Pre-Conquest origin, largely rebuilt in C12. Further enlarged in C13, C14, C15, C16. Restored c 1875, G E Street … Font C12, with interlaced arcading." Described and fully illustrated in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]. On-site notes: only the basin of the Bere Regis font is original, the base being a modern column with base. The basin is almost cylindrical, slightly wider at the top, with a band of encircled six-petal flowers all around the upper rim; the rest of the basin side is covered with a blind arcade of overlapping round arches which are very narrow and as tall as the remaining surface of the basin side, except for a moulding at the bottom.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Gerald Duke, of www.martinstown.co.uk, for the added information on, and photographs of this font]
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 555171 5622570
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.75228, -2.2179
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 45′ 8.21″ N, 2° 13′ 4.44″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone
Font Shape: round, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Drainage Notes: [new] lead lining
Rim Thickness: 13-14 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 53 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 80-81 cm*
Basin Depth: 27 cm*
Basin Total Height: 55-56 cm*
Height of Base: 59-60 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 115 cm*
Font Height (with Plinth): 134 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * BSI on site
LID INFORMATION
Notes: [cf. FontNotes regarding the damage to the back of the basin]
REFERENCES
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 197
- Gough, Richard, "Description of the old font in the Church of East Meon, Hampshire, 1789: with some observations on fonts", X, Archaeologia, 1792, pp. 183-209; p. 201fn
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1970, vol. 2, pt. 1: 13-18
- Holmes, Edric, Wanderings in Wessex: an Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter, London: Robert Scott Roxburghe House, [1922]
- Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset: a view of the principal towns, seats, antiquities, and other remarkable particulars in Dorset, 1774, vol. 1: 47
- Hutton, Graham, English Parish Churches, London: Thames & Hudson, 1976, p. 44
- Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; p. 67, 75
- Mehling, Franz N., Great Britain and Ireland: a Phaidon Cultural Guide, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985, p. 182 and ill. on p. 181
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 202 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hYEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=hemyock+church+font&source=bl&ots=wV68KRXFhH&sig=_-CnLgSLeYKjq8YBQMsxSQrjbvA&hl=en&ei=1IKRSeTLOojKNO3c_YkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA161,M1] [accessed 10 February 2009]
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 90
- Stanier, Peter, Dorset's archaeology: archaeology in the landscape, 4000BC to AD1700, Tiverton: Dorset Books, 2004, p. 139
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 77, 80