Tidenham / Tedeham [Domesday] / Tedenham / Tideham

Standing permission

Results: 8 records

Click to view images

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the font as it appears in January 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes of The Gloucestershire Library [ww.allthecotswolds.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font

Image Source: digital image of an illustration by J. Basire and Sarah Ormerod in Ormerod (1842)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Scene Description: the font at Tidenham shown together with the one [then] at Llancaut [Gloucester No. 1]

view of basin

Image Source: digital image of an illustration by J. Basire and Sarah Ormerod in Ormerod (1842)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

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

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of church exterior

Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes of The Gloucestershire Library [ww.allthecotswolds.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of base

Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes of The Gloucestershire Library [ww.allthecotswolds.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin - projection

Scene Description: a comparative re-created projection of the basin program

INFORMATION

Font ID: 00259TID

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [basin only], Medieval [composite]

Workshop/Group/Artisan: lead font

Cognate Fonts: Frampton-on-Severn, Siston, Oxenhall, Lancaut [i.e., Gloucester No. 1], and Sandhurst (Gloucs.), all said to have been made from the same mould

Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary and St. Peter

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin & St. Peter

Church Notes: a church here may have existed as early as the early 8thC

Church Address: Tidenham Ln, Tidenham, Gloucestershire NP16 7JQ, UK

Site Location: Gloucestershire, South West, England, United Kingdom

Directions to Site: Located on the W banks of the Severn, 3 km up the A48 (NE) from Chepstow

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Gloucester

Historical Region: Hundred of Tidenham

Additional Comments: altered font: the base is 18thC -- disappeared font? (the one from the Domesday-time church here)

Font Notes: Click to view

There are three entries for Tidenham [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/ST5595/tidenham/] [accessed 11 February 2019] one of which reports a church in it. A font here is described and illustrated by Sarah Ormerod and J. Basire in Ormerod (1842), who suggests that the fonts from Tidenham and the one from Lancaut [for Lancaut font see Gloucester entry in this Index] are "apparently of the Saxon period, and certainly casts from the same mould. [...] The architecture may be referred either to the later Saxon, or earlier Norman period; but the dress, and, in particular, the beards of the figures, the decorations of the thrones, the ornamental foliage, and the scrolls, will more probably be referred to the Saxon æra. As far as their coarser execution will allow comparison, they very much resemble the delineations given in the Benedictional of Æthelwold." Paley (1844) notes this lead font and cites the earlier Archaeologia (vol. XXIX: 19) reference [i.e., Ormerod (1842)]. Listed in Cox (1875). In Andre (1882) simply as Norman. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "the font is of lead, ancient, and curiously sculptured." Lethaby (1893) lists this one and the one from Lancaut as duplicates. "evidently of the twelfth century", and remarks on the similarity between this font and the one at Berneuil, in Somme, France. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a font "of Early Norman date, prior to 1100". Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a lead baptismal font believed to have been made from the same mould as the ones at Frampton-on-Severn, Siston, Oxenhall, Lancaut and Sandhurst, all in Gloucestershire. In Fryer (1908). [cf. Index entry for Frampton-on-Severn for more details, iconography, etc.] The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Gloucester, vol. 10, 1972) notes: "Of the church that stood on the site in the 11th century only the font survives [...] The church has a Norman lead font, one of six Gloucestershire fonts from the same blocks, another of them being made for the neighbouring church of Lancaut. The bowl is ornately decorated in relief with an arcade of 12 bays containing alternately figures and scroll-work; [...] the base is modern." Noted in Verey & Brooks (1999-2002). "Norton [i.e., John Norton, responsible for the 1857-8 restoration of the church] […] provided a new stone base for the late C12 circular lead font, one of six in the county cast from the same blocks […]" [NB: in a recent [27 January 2008] visit by John Wilkes to Tidenham the vicar showed him a stone pedestal which is not the one that appears under the lead basin in Basire's ca. 1842 drawing; nor does it match the basin illustrated in the same drawing for Lancaut]. The entry for this church in the CRSBI (2019) notes: "The church houses a lead font, one of six in Gloucestershire to be cast from the same mould. [...] The lead font is located in the nave almost opposite the S door and rests on a stone base provided by John Norton in 1858. The font is tub-shaped, with a slightly smaller bowl set inside with a drain hole. The bowls is decorated in relief with six seated male figures alternating with panels of foliated scrolls under an arcade of twelve arches. There are two different designs of scroll work: three panels feature an 'S' pattern and three have a reversed 'S' which is more intricate; both patterns are decorated with foliage. The four panels are repeated twice more in the same order to make up the twelve. The capitals and bases of the columns are triangular and the columns are decorated with chevrons, beaded spirals and small sunken pellet mouldings. There are strips of palmette decoration along the top and bottom of the arcades. Some cracks and small chips are visible around the rim, one particularly large on the W side of the font. There is white speckling on the lead more predominately on the W side, where the decoration is rather worn."

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Wilkes, of www.allthecotswolds.com, for the information on, and images of this font

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 524575 5723196

Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.659212, -2.644719

Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 39′ 33.16″ N, 2° 38′ 40.99″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: metal, lead

Font Shape: tub-shaped

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage System: yes

Diameter (inside rim): 63.75 cm* / 63 cm***

Diameter (includes rim): 80 cm** / 65 cm***

Basin Total Height: 55 cm* / 47.5 cm** / 38 cm***

Notes on Measurements: * [in inches in Fryer (1908: 281)] / **[Lethaby (1893) / *** CRSBI (2019)

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
André, J. Lewis, "Leaden Fonts in Sussex", 32, Surrey Archaeological Collections, relating to the history and antiquities of the county, 1882
Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 37, 79 and ill. on p. 81
Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
Cox, John Charles, 1875-1877
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 163, 199, 200
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
Fryer, Alfred C., "The Gloucestershire fonts", 31(1908); 34(1911); 40(1917); 41(1918); 42(1920), Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 1908, 1911, 1920, pp. 31 (277-281); 34 (195-207); 40(39-56); 41 (27-35); 42 (69-88); p. 277-279, 281
Lethaby, William Richard, Leadwork, old and ornamental, and for the most part English [...] with illustrations, London; New York: Macmillan & co., 1893, p. 58, 62, 63
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831, [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51344] [accessed 13 March 2007]
Ormerod, George, "An account of some ancient remains [...] the leaden fonts of Llancaut and Tidenham [...]", XXIX, Archaeologia, 1842, pp. [18]-25; p. 19-25 and pl. III on p. 24
Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 24
Verey, David, Gloucestershire, London: Penguin Books, 1999-2002, vol. 2: 762