Long Wittenham / Earl's Wittenham / Great Wittenham / West Wittenham / Witeham

Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

Results: 15 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

cleric - bishop - standing - wearing mitre - with staff

Scene Description: probably a total of 24, each inside an arch

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 26 May 1985 by Timothy Marlow

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

design element - architectural - arcade

Scene Description: around the lower basin side; each arch (probably a total of 24) contains a bishop figure

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 26 May 1985 by Timothy Marlow

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

design element - motifs - floral

Scene Description: several of them all around the basin

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 26 May 1985 by Timothy Marlow

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

design element - motifs - moulding

Scene Description: a set of vertical and horizontal mouldings that divide the basin surface into sections or areas

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 26 May 1985 by Timothy Marlow

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

design element - motifs - spiral - in a circle

Scene Description: several of them on the sides of the basin

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 26 May 1985 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of basin

Image Source: Peter Fairweather of Lincoln

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin

Image Source: B&W glass plate negative in the Muggeridge Collections, Special Collections, University of Kent at Canterbury [UKC-CHR-MUG-BW.F213169 -- Accession no. F213169]; captioned: "Lead Font No. 9. Lead Font Long Wittenham Berkshire Taken august 6th 1906" . Author: William Burrell Muggeridge (1884-1978) [http://www.kent.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/mills/r.php/22520/show.html] [accessed 15 November 2011]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of basin and cover

Image Source: photograph taken 26 May 1985 by Timothy Marlow

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

view of church exterior - northeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 November 2009 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1590852] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 November 2009 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1590844] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - southwest view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 12 June 2004 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/331096] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 November 2009 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1589575] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font and cover

Scene Description: This cover is not the same shown in Bond's photograph of ca. 1908

Image Source: Peter Fairweather of Lincoln

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 November 2009 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1589579] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font cover

Scene Description: In this case the "cover" is supposed to have been the one used to hide the font from Cromwell's men

Image Source: Peter Fairweather of Lincoln

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 00267LON

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: High Street, Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire, OX14 4QJ

Country Name: England

Location: Oxfordshire, South East

Directions to Site: Located 5 km N of Didcot, 6 km SE of Abingdon, 12-13 km SSE of Oxford

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford

Historical Region: formerly in Berkshire -- Hundred of Ock

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Medieval

Workshop/Group/Artisan: lead font

Cognate Fonts: Warborough, Oxon.

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Peter Fairweather, of Lincoln, for the photographs of the font, cover and 'case'; we are also grateful to Timothy Marlow for his photographs of this font and cover

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for [Long] Wittenham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU5493/long-wittenham/] [accessed 2 June 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. An engraving of this font appears in the Archaeological Journal (vol. 2). The Church Builder (issue no. 47 January 1873: 20) notes: "There are several examples of fonts cast in lead; there is a good Late Norman example, circular in shape, with ornament in relief on the exterior, which stands on a massive circular block of stone as a base, in Long Wittenham Church, Berkshire; it is engraved in the 'Archaeological Journal', vol. ii, p 135." Noted in Andre (1882) as a lead font of late Norman date, but Murray (1882) dates it "Trans[itional]-Norm[an]". Described in 'Church notes...' (1887) in the context of some "notes [that] were taken between 1835 and 1840": "The font is large, of cast lead, with an ornamented band of effigies of Bishops under a pointed arcade, and above are prints of foliage and tracery, applied by the founder somwhat carelessly. The style seems early English. This leaden bowl stands upon a small stone cylinder in the north aisle, with a step on the west side. Until recently the whole was concealed in bricks and mortar, encased in a wooden case of the date of 1632." Lethaby (1893) reckons it was "made in the same workshop apparently" as the font at Warborough. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a lead baptismal font similar, though not identical, to the one at nearby Warborough [the round motifs on both fonts are similar but the font at Long Wittenham has more of them]; this font lacks the taller tower-like motif present at Warborough, and has more arches with bishops in them instead [cf.Index entry for Warborough]. The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "The church of Long Wittenham [...] was granted by Walter Giffard the younger to the priory founded by his father at Newton Longville [...] in Buckinghamshire, a cell of the priory of Longueville Giffard in the diocese of Rouen [the younger Walter Giffard would be the 2nd Earl of Buckingham; he died in 1164] [...] The nave of the present church with the chancel arch belongs to a building of early 12th-century date. [...] The remarkable 12th or 13th-century lead font is circular, and rests on a round stone base; the lower part has a range of round arches, each containing a figure of an archbishop in relief; the upper part is divided into rectangular panels enriched with circular stamped designs. The font was formerly covered with an octagonal Jacobean oak casing with incised designs on each face, and had a pyramidal oak cover of similar character." Described and illustrated in Tyrrell-Green (1928). There is an octagonal pyramidal cover with a knob finial; the sides of the pyramid are covered in foliage patterns [NB: the wooden Case for the font was said to have been used to disguise it from Cromwell's men, according to the local lore -- we have no corroborating information as to the date of "the case"; even if it were to prove too late for the claimed funtion, the box-like object would still make sense as a frame for the font. "Boxed" fonts are not uncommon in either England or France [cf.Index entry for the font at Bagneres-de-Bigorre No.1 for an spectacular example]. [NB: an unrecorded and unconfirmed source suggested the wood for the font 'case' came from the sounding board of the pulpit].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.643034, -1.20873

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 38′ 34.92″ N, 1° 12′ 31.43″ W

UTM: 30U 623943 5722856

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: metal, lead (basin) and stone (base)

Font Shape: cylindrical (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

LID INFORMATION

Material: wood,

Apparatus: yes; pulley attached to the roof

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

"Church notes, chiefly in Berks, Wilts, and Oxford, with a few in Somerset and Gloucestershire", 44, Archaeological Journal, 1887, pp. 43-50; 185-193; 291-303; 397-402; r["References"]

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2011-11-15 00:00:00. 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

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"]

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

Lethaby, William Richard, Leadwork, old and ornamental, and for the most part English [...] with illustrations, London; New York: Macmillan & co., 1893

T., D.R., "Llangwm Ucha, Monmouthshire", 4th Series, No. 29 (1877), Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1877, pp. 40-51; r["References"]

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