Bodmin / Bodmine / Bosvenegh
Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Results: 16 records
view of font
Scene Description: Side 4
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Scene Description: Side 3
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Scene Description: Side 2
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Scene Description: side 1
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Lysons (1806-1833)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Paley (1844)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font - southwest side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Bond (1908: p. 201)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font - north side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Bond (1908: p. 200)
Copyright Instructions: PD
angel - cherub - 4
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
symbol - tree - Tree of life - with lions
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
animal - mammal - lion - 4
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
symbol - tree - Tree of life - with serpents
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
symbol - tree - Tree of life
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church exterior
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church exterior - well
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a 22 July 2000 photograph by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
INFORMATION
Font ID: 00302BOD
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Date Visited: 1998-07-29; 2000-07-22
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 13th century, Late Norman / Transitional?
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Cornish font, Bodmin group
Cognate Fonts: Other fonts of similar shape at St. Austell, St. Columb-Minor, Crantock, Cuby, St. Dennis, St. Gorran, Luxulyan, Newlyn, Roche, Southill, Tintagell, Veryan, and St. Wen
Church / Chapel Name: Church of St. Petroc
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, near the entrance [cf. FontNotes for details of its move]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Petroc [aka Pedrog, Perreux, Petrock]
Church Notes: existing church building is dated 1469–1472, except part of the tower, which is Norman; restored twice in Victorian times, again in 1930s
The church is often kept locked and the key is not easily obtainable outside opening hours, so it is advisable to plan the visit on the posted days and hours.
Church Address: Priory Rd, Bodmin PL31 2DT, UK -- Tel.: +44 1208 77674
Site Location: Cornwall, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (N) the A389-B3268 crossroads,, about 10 km NE of Roche, about 25 km NNE of St Austell
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Truro
Historical Region: Hundred of Rialton
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for Bodmin [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SX0767/bodmin/] [accessed 17 January 2021] but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Lysons (1806-1833) note "ornaments in the Saxon style", and give “St. Austell, St. Columb-Minor, Crantock, Cuby, St. Dennis, St. Gorran, Luxulion, Newlyn, Roche, Southill, Tintagell, Veryan, and St. Wen” as cognates, though of smaller dimensions. Noted and illustrated in Upcott (1818) [with reference to Lyson]. Noted and illustrated in Britton's Dictionary of 1838 as "ornamented with rude and grotesque sculptures". Described and illustrated in Paley (1844), who reported that the then [ca. 1844] vicar, the rev, J. Wallis, "removed the Font from the north to the south aisle, and placed it in the centre of the west end, near the south entrance; at the time raising it on two steps of granite, and clearing it of many coats of limewash." Described in 'On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall' (1851): "magnificent and far famed example in the church of S. Petroc, Bodmin. It is very large, and of granite. The bowl, which is round, and richly ornamented with intricately twisted foliage, is supported by a central and four angular shafts, all of which have good bases, moulded, and with ornaments at the corners. At the corners of the bowl, in the upper part, are winged heads carved upon square blocks slightly projecting." In Murray (1865) as Norman. Listed and illustrated in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908). Cox (1912) notes and illustrates a font of Pentewan stone in this church "of characteristically Cornish design […] Font a grand example of late Norm[an] on large scale, 3 ft. 7 high, and diameter 3 ft. 5J- in. Circular bowl with squared rim supported by central shaft, and 4 corner shafts with angels' heads as capitals ; vigorous carving of bowl shows foliage on two sides and on other sides knotted serpents. Font unfortunately disfigured by lofty but clumsily designed oak cover presented in 1881; a font of this date and style requires a mere flat cover." Stone (1955) describes this font as the finest example of a group of fonts made in the Fal valley of Cornwall. Stone (Ibid.) further out that "in shape the font is probably an imitation of the Tournsai marble group of the 1160s, [...] an example of the retention of Romanesque designs and styles in a backward area already affected by Gothic sculptural virtuosity and the Gothic for naturalistic human heads." In Pevsner (1970): "C12, the best of its type in the county". On-site notes: most magnificient of Norman fonts [the Roche font is a cognate]; the hemispheric bowl rests on a central shaft and four non-constructional colonnettes at the corners; vigorous and emblematic carving: the basin sides have flowers and stems interlacing in every direction forming a Tree of Life (?) on each side, two of the sides with intertwined serpents; the underbowl has four lions on it. The top pillars of the corner shafts have winged heads.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library for acces to the copy of Lysons’ Magna Britannia, and to Jim Ingram, of the Preservation Services, Robarts Library, for the digital imaging of Lysons’ illustrations]
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 378173 5592453
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.4714, -4.7168
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 28′ 17.04″ N, 4° 43′ 0.48″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone / Pentewan stone
Font Shape: hemispheric, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: cauldron
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Drainage Notes: new lead lining (July 2000)
Rim Thickness: 14 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 59-70 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 87 cm*
Basin Depth: 33 cm*
Basin Total Height: 67 cm*
Height of Base: 42 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 109 cm* / **
Font Height (with Plinth): 149 cm*
Square Base Dimensions: 43 x 43 cm*
Trapezoidal Basin: 105.5 x 105.5 cm (at the angel heads) *[103.75 cm]
Notes on Measurements: * BSI on-site / ** in Lysons (1806-1833: vol. III: ccxxiii) and in Cox (1912) in inches
LID INFORMATION
Material: wood
Apparatus: yes, pulley
Notes: elaborate font cover represents an architectural structure (church?) and has pulley system to raise it.
REFERENCES
- "On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall: a communication", 83 (April 1851) / New Series no. 47, Ecclesiologist, 1851, pp. 96-102; p. 98-99
- Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958, p. 120
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 153, 199, 203 and ill. on p. 200 & 201
- Britton, John, A Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages, including […], London: Longman, Orne, Brown, Green, and Longmann, Paternoster Row, and the Author, Burton Street, 1838, p. 127 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=vO5PbV1ppbAC&pg=RA2-PA127&lpg=RA2-PA127&dq=bremhill+church+font&source=web&ots=4GsoexXupn&sig=DNMvDt3R1TjCjsiC-vFNvpnw5e0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA4-IA1,M1] [accessed 15 August 2008]
- Carlsson, Frans, The Iconology of Tectonics in Romanesque Art, Hässleholm: AM-Tryck, 1976, p. 68
- Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part IX", 54, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1922, pp. 216-223; p. 217
- Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912, p. 13, 17, 63 and pl. between pp. 62 and 63
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 189, 193 (ill. on p. 190)
- Davies, J.G., The Architectural Setting of Baptism, London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962, p. ix, 65, 159 and pl. 16
- Drake, Colin Stuart, "Romanesque Fonts in Kent: the French Connections", CXXIII, 2003, Archaeologia Cantiana, 2003, pp. 333-352; p. 334
- Friar, Stephen, The Sutton Companion to Churches, Thrupp, Stroud (Gloucs.): Sutton Publishing, 2003, p. 202
- Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing], p. 71
- 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, vol. III: p. ccxxiii and pl. on p. opp.
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Devon and Cornwall, London: John Murray, 1865, p. 243 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=V_YGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=%22roborough+stone%22&source=bl&ots=2ZhOkO8ZIn&sig=RriwKcw-zwLPfFdGUaHE7WccPgU&hl=en&ei=QRWkSZHXMYjTnQe2ud2pBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPR5,M1] [accessed 24 February 2009]
- Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 15 et al.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970, p. 42
- Pudelko, Georg, Romanische Taufsteine, Berlin: Wurfel Verlag, 1932, p. XII
- Rees, Elizabeth, An essential guide to Celtic sites and their saints, London; New York: Burns & Oates, 2003, p. 136
- Stone, Lawrence, Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1955, p. 90
- Upcott, William, A bibliographical account of the principal works relating to English topography, London: Printed by Richard and Arthur Taylor, 1818, p. 95 and pl. xviii / [http://books.google.com/books?id=gLwuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=upcott+1818&source=web&ots=lJwT-K00zU&sig=oVT6Kc6G03vqjYf4Synuk_Aek9w#PPP15,M1] [accessed 23 September 2007]