Stoke Canon / Stoche / Stoke Cannon

Results: 24 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B01: design element - motifs - circle and X (cross - saltire?)

Scene Description: east side: interlaced; short fleur-de-lis motifs outside the circle; the X has double curled ends

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

B02: design element - motifs - circle and X (cross - saltire?)

Scene Description: south side: the circle is made of ornate curlicues --

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

B03: design element - motifs - circle and X (cross - saltire?)

Scene Description: west side: three-strand concentric circles and four-strand X with double curled ends

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

B04: design element - motifs - circle and X (cross - saltire?)

Scene Description: north side: three-strand concentric circles and four-strand X with fleur-de-lis ends

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

BBL01: design element - motifs - rope moulding

Scene Description: held by the atlante-like figures of the base

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

BF01: animal - fabulous animal or monster - devouring human head - animal mask?

Scene Description: north-east figure: one of four figures supporting the bowl. Crouching animal above the figure devouring the head - like a mask or helmet?

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

BF02: human figure - lame - standing - holding club

Scene Description: north-west corner of the basin: said to be Moses, pilgrim, bishop; appears to hold a significant club

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

BF03: animal - fabulous animal or monster - devouring human head - animal mask?

Scene Description: south-east corner: one of four figures supporting the bowl. Crouching animal above the figure devouring the head - like a mask or helmet? -- Photographed in July 1998

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

BF04: animal - fabulous animal or monster - devouring human head - animal mask?

Scene Description: south-west corner: one of four figures supporting the bowl. Crouching animal above the figure devouring the head - like a mask or helmet?

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

LB01: design element - patterns - diamond or lozenge

Scene Description: Pelleted diamond/star pattern all around the bottom sides of the lower base

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

LBS01: cleric - priest - with book - giving sign of benediction

Scene Description: north side: the figure is holding a book in his left hand and has his right hand raised in benediction.

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

LBS02: Old Testament - Story of Moses - Exodus - pilgrim? - bishop?

Scene Description: west side: the figure with the staff on the western end may be Moses, a bishop or a pilgrim.

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

LBS03: cleric - priest? - giving sign of benediction

Scene Description: south side: Figure badly eroded - difficult to identify

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

LBS04: Virgin Mary - Madonna and Christ-child?

Scene Description: east side: Madonna and Child? - badly eroded.

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

view of church exterior - detail

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

view of font

Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)

Copyright Instructions: PD

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 B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Clarke (1907)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Lysons (1806-1833)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font - east side

Image Source: Roger Peters [www.wissensdrang.com]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 9 January 2005)

view of font - east side

Image Source: digital image of a 27 July 1998 photograph by BSI

view of font - south side

Image Source: Roger Peters [www.wissensdrang.com]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 9 January 2005)

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 March 2010 by phajus [http://www.flickr.com/photos/10350073@N04/4424925328/in/pool-1222982@N22/]

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

INFORMATION

FontID: 00294STO

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalen

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary Magdalene

Church Location: Stoke Canon, Exeter EX5 4AS, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1392 759612

Country Name: England

Location: Devon, South West

Directions to Site: Located off the A396, between Exeter and Tiverton, 8 km N of Exeter

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Exeter

Historical Region: Hundred of Wonford [in Domesday]

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Date: ca. 1170 [Carlsson]

Century and Period: 12th century, Norman

Cognate Fonts: [one of the fragments kept in Exeter St David's may have been from a similar font as this one]

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. Roger Peters, of www.wissensdrang.com, for his permission to use the transcription of and images from Stabb (1908)]. [We are also grateful to the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library for access to the copy of Lysons’ Magna Britannia, and to Jim Ingram, of the Preservation Services, Robarts Library, for the digital imaging of Lysons’ illustrations]

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Stoke [Canon] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SX9398/stoke-canon/] [accessed 12 January 2023]; it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Noted and illustrated in Lysons (1806-1833) as a baptismal font with "figures and animals of very coarse workmanship." In Paley (1844). Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports: "the font is an object of great interest, supposed by antiquaries to be at least 700 years old". Barnes (1891) notes that this font [Branes uses spelling 'Stoke Cannon'] shares characteristics with the one at Toller Fratrum, and argues for a Saxon pedigree and a date near the 8th century. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Studied in Clarke (1907) and (1913), who contests Bond's argument [cf. infra] about the shape of the font, and argues -rather unconvincingly- that "the sculptor set out to carve a circular tub, but he wanted to make the best of his block of lava, and designed the outline so as to waste as little as possible." Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as one of "a set of sculptured fonts which have been credited with undue antiquity, owing to the rudeness or uncouthness of their ornament; but it by no means follows that what is archaic is always ancient". Bond (ibid., p. 143) dates these fonts to the 12th century and argues (ibid.) that the elaborate ornamentation is a survival "of Anglo-Saxon or Celtic traditions of design", and that this font design owes to the central-cylinder-and-four-outer-shafts type of support, a type, Bond adds (ibid.), "hardly appears before the middle of the twelfth century." Noted and illustrated in Stabb (1908). Illustrated in Needham (1944). Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Norman of the most elementary. On the pillar four figures and four caryatid figures between them holding the bowl on their angularly raised arms.From the bowl four beasts crouch down to bite off their heads." Drake (2003) identifies the "X" motif as a saltire. On-site notes: a figure at each of four corners of the base is threatened by an animal's mouth leaning from the basin corners [a reference to animal masks used?]. Various interlacing motifs are carved on the four sides of the basin. The sides of the base depict four figures, one on each side, between the corner figures described above. On the north side the figure is holding a book and has his right hand raised in benediction: a cleric. The figure with the staff on the western end has been suggested as Moses, a pilgrim or a bishop [by Clarke, for instance], although it really looks like a man with a thick club. The figures on the south and eastern sides are more difficult to identify (the east side may be a Madonna and Child) [Paley (1844) refuses to attempt an identification on account of the mutilation they have suffered]. There is no lead lining, but the basin well has a central drain. The font is cut in one-piece including the lower base or plinth which bears a decorative band of diamond [saltire?] motif all around. Tyrrell-Green (1928) describes its carving as "remarkable for boldness of design, but the rudeness of its execution and the rough usage it has been subjected to render it difficult to give a meaning to the figures". [NB: on-site notes aided by information from the pamphlet containing a short history of the church and written by Gillian and John Piper]. [NB: cf. Index entry for Exeter No. 5, St David's, for a fragment of a font possibly of the same design, period and material].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.772, -3.50525

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 46′ 19.2″ N, 3° 30′ 18.9″ W

UTM: 30U 464373 5624593

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, coarse volcanic stone (Thorverton trapdyke)

Number of Pieces: one

Font Shape: bucket-shaped (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: no lining

Rim Thickness: 6 cm*

Diameter (inside rim): 53 cm* / 52.5 x 37.5 cm**

Diameter (includes rim): 66 cm* / 65 cm**

Basin Depth: 25 cm* / 26.25 cm**

Basin Total Height: 42 cm* (including cable)

Height of Base: 55 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 97 cm* / 95 cm**

Font Height (with Plinth): 105 cm*

Square Base Dimensions: 54 x 57 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * BSI on site / ** given in inches in Clarke (1913: 329)]

LID INFORMATION

Date: dated 1909

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: low octagonal pyramid, patterned sides; obelisk-like finial; odd; modern

REFERENCES

Barnes, W. Miles, "A brief historical & descriptive sketch of the churches in the rural deanery of Dorchester (Dorchester portion)", XII, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1891, pp. [36]-70; r["References"]

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

Carlsson, Frans, The Iconology of Tectonics in Romanesque Art, Hässleholm: AM-Tryck, 1976

Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part I", 45, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1913, pp. 314-329; r["References"]

Clarke, Kate M., "The symbolism of the ancient fonts of Stoke Canon, St Mary Church and Alphington", IV:V (1907), Devon and Cornwall Notes & Queries, 1907, pp. 129-139 and plates; r["References"]

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

Drake, Colin Stuart, "Romanesque Fonts in Kent: the French Connections", CXXIII, 2003, Archaeologia Cantiana, 2003, pp. 333-352; r["References"]

Drake, Colin Stuart, The Romanesque Fonts of Northern Europe and Scandinavia, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2002

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

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

Lysons, Daniel, Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain, London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806-1822

Neeham, Albert, How to study an old church, London: Batsford, 1944

Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844

Pevsner, Nikolaus, South Devon, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1952

Stabb, John, Some old Devon churches, their roods, pulpits, fonts, etc., London: Simkin, [et al.], 1908-1916

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"]