Lifton / Listone
Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Results: 16 records
view of font and cover - northwest side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Julie Pitrone Williamson, 2002
Image Source: photograph courtesy of Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (letter of 9 December 2004)
view of font and cover - west side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Julie Pitrone Williamson, 2002
Image Source: photograph courtesy of Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (letter of 9 December 2004)
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Bond (1908)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of basin - southwest side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
human figure - grotesque or fantastic - head
Scene Description: some of the heads appear human, whereas others are mask-like
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - motifs - ball, bead or pellet
Scene Description: tiny pellets, beads or balls in the spandrels of the arcade
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - intersecting arches
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - motifs - X in a square (nail-head, etc.)
Scene Description: also known as 'Norman star', a form of nail-head and/or dog-tooth motif -- note the area where a modern replacement has been inserted
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church exterior - east side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Julie Pitrone Williamson, 2002
Image Source: photograph courtesy of Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (letter of 9 December 2004)
view of church exterior - west tower
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Julie Pitrone Williamson, 2002
Image Source: photograph courtesy of Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (letter of 9 December 2004)
view of church interior - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Julie Pitrone Williamson, 2002
Image Source: photograph courtesy of Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (letter of 9 December 2004)
view of font and cover in context
Scene Description: from the NW corner
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Julie Pitrone Williamson, 2002
Image Source: photograph courtesy of Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (letter of 9 December 2004)
view of font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
animal - bird - dove
Scene Description: cover finial
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 29 June 1998 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Julie Pitrone Williamson, 2002
Image Source: photograph courtesy of Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (letter of 9 December 2004)
INFORMATION
Font ID: 00305LIF
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Date Visited: 1998-07-29
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 13th century, Late Norman / Transitional?
Cognate Fonts: Clarke [cf. infra] groups this font with the ones at Maristow and Stowford
Church / Chapel Name: Church of Saint Mary the Virgin
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, centre nave
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: 15-19 Park Rd, Lifton PL16 0BL, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1566 784462
Site Location: Devon, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (E) the A30, 6 km E of Launceston, 24 km WSW of Okehampton
Historical Region: Hundred of Lifton [in Domesday]
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for Lifton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SX3885/lifton/] [accessed 31 January 2023]; it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as one of a group of square baptismal fonts in the county that are "for the most part supported by four pillars and a large pedestal in the centre". Noted in John Murray's Handbook for travellers […] (1865): "a good Norm[an] font". Described and illustrated in Bond (1908 (who dates it no earlier than the last quarter of the 12th century, "the foliage and scrolls being Gothic in character", and he is more inclined to date it to the 13th century. The corner heads are of the type found in the fonts at Launceston, Bratton and Altarnon, but the Lifton basin has a squareness and shape which distinguishes it from the latter fonts and makes it closer to the Devonian ones at Maristow and Stowdon, as Clarke (1921) points out. Bond (ibid.) refers to the arches as "pointed", although the arches are actually round and intersecting, and it is only the resulting intersections that are pointed; there is pellet and trefoil or lily motif between the arches; there is nail-head and foliage on the band around the upper rim side. Clarke (1921) notes that "the four-leaved flower at Maristow is replaced by ornament of Early English character, a continuous stem throwing off trefoils on each side." The stem of the base is an octagonal pedestal and the plinth has the same shape. Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Square, Norman, of a type more Cornish than Devonian (but cf. Marystow): corner heads and between them simplky ornamented intersecting arches." Described in Hoskins (1954) as "a magnificent late 12th-cent. font". On-site notes: four grotesque heads at the upper basin side corners (the one on the SW corner appears to be a cat's mask); ornamental motifs, pointed arches [cf. supra re shape], fleur-de-lis or trefoil, and the Early English continuous tendril motif decorate the four sides. The base is polygonal -square chamfered to octagonal- and plain. There is a wooden lid (19th or 20th century). The basin well is not lined with lead, but has a central drainage hole.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwilli@wmi.rr.com] for the added photographs of this font and church]
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 409277 5610858
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.64252, -4.2831
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 38′ 33.07″ N, 4° 16′ 59.16″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, freestone
Number of Pieces: two?
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Drainage System: centre hole in basin & base
Drainage Notes: not lined
Rim Thickness: 11-13 to 25-29 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 54-55 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 77.5 cm**
Basin Depth: 25 cm* / 27.5 cm**
Height of Basin Side: 44 cm*
Basin Total Height: 52 cm*
Height of Base: 42 cm*
Height of Central Column: 22.5 cm**
Font Height (less Plinth): 94 cm* / 92.5 cm**
Font Height (with Plinth): 107 cm*
Trapezoidal Basin: 77 x 80 x 75 x 78 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * BSI on-site / ** measurements given in inches in Clarke (1922: 223 -- NB: Clarke gives only "30 inches" as the measurement of the "base", but it probably refers to its diameter]
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material: wood, oak
Apparatus: yes [counterweight]
REFERENCES
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 149, 155, 157, 206 and ill. on p. 204
- 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. 223
- Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part VIII", 53, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1921, pp. 226-231; p. 230, 231
- Hoskins, William George, Devon, London: Collins, 1954, p. 424
- 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. 6: p. cccxxx
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Devon and Cornwall, London: John Murray, 1865, p. 53 / [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]
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, South Devon, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1952, p. 195-196, 204