Burford nr. Leominster / Bureford
Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Results: 58 records
B01: New Testament - Passion of Christ - Crucifixion - Mary - John the Evangelist
B02: Apostle or saint - St. John the Baptist - with lamb
B03: Apostle or saint - St. Catherine of Alexandria - with wheel
B04: Apostle or saint - St. Margaret of Antioch? - with dragon? - with staff or spear?
B05: Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Andrew - with his cross
B06: Apostle or saint - unidentified
Scene Description: one suggestion identifies this figure as St. Lawrence, but where are the attibutes? Appears to be monk/cleric-like [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: BSI - Photographed June 2, 2007
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
B07: Apostle or saint - St. Gregory?
B08: design element - architectural - arcade - Ogee arches - cusped
B09: design element - architectural - arcade - polylobed arches - crocketed arches
BBU01: human figure - male - head - bearded - 7?
BBU02: design element - motifs - foliage?
R01: design element - motifs - ball
view of font and cover
view of font
view of font - south side
view of font - southwest side
view of font - northwest side
view of font - northeast side
view of font - side 7
view of font - side 6
view of font - side 5
view of font - side 4
view of font - side 3
view of font - side 2
view of font - side 1
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [www.allthecotswolds.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font
view of font
view of church exterior - west portal
view of church exterior - west portal
view of church exterior - southeast view - tower
view of church exterior - south view - tower - detail
view of church exterior - south view - tower
view of church exterior - south view
view of church exterior - south view - tower
view of church exterior - west tower
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [www.allthecotswolds.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover in context
view of basin - detail
Scene Description: bottom of the panel with figure tentatively identified as St. Margaret of Antioch: it is clearly an ofid but, was it intended to represent the dragon?
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: BSI - Photographed June 2, 2007
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of basin - detail
view of basin - detail
view of basin - detail
view of font cover
view of church exterior - west portal - detail
view of church exterior - west portal - detail
view of church exterior - west portal - detail
view of church exterior - west portal - detail
view of church exterior - west portal - detail
view of church exterior - west portal - detail
view of church exterior - south view - tower - window
inscription
view of basin - upper view - detail
view of church interior - detail
view of church interior - detail
view of church interior - tower - detail
view of church interior - tower - detail
view of church interior - tower - detail
view of church interior - tower - detail
INFORMATION
Font ID: 00346BUR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Date Visited: 1998-07-27; 2007-06-02
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [basin only] [re-cut: 14th century], Medieval / composite
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. John the Baptist
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, NW corner
Church Patron Saint(s): St. John the Baptist
Church Notes: 12thC [ca. 1125?] church; modified 15thC (wool church ca. 1485) / restored 19thC -- [cf. FontNotes about the event involving some "levellers" or "diggers" which took place in this church during the Civil War]
Church Address: Burford OX18 4RZ, United Kingdom
Site Location: Oxfordshire, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the A40, 33 km W of Oxford
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Historical Region: Hundred of Bampton [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: recycled font: basin is believed to be Norman, but the ornamentation re-carved in the 14th century MUST USE
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for this Burford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SP2512/burford/] [accessed 2 February 2023]; it mentions neither cleriic nor church in it. The font here is illustrated by Frederick Mackenzie (1788-1854) in a copper engraving for Skelton's 1823 book 'Antiquities of Oxfordshire'. Noted in Tymms (1834). Moule (1837) describes this font as hexagonal. The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850) notes: "fine circular font [...] it appears to be of D[ecorated] date." Murray (1882) notes the font and "the words 'Anthonye Sedley, 1649, prisner' rudely carved on the font" [cf. infra]. Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911 [http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp] [accessed 30 June 2007] describes it as 'a Decorated work" [i.e., of the Decorate or 14th-century English Gothic period]. Noted as a Late Decorated font with an illustration in Daubeny (1921). Reported in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848: "In the nave is an ancient font of cylindrical form, ornamented with a rude sculpture of the Crucifixion." Described and illustrated in Bond (1908).as a 14th-century monolithic font. Tyrrell-Green (1928) notes: "figures stand in shallow panels with crocketed ogee heads, one of the panels containing the Crucifixion wit attendant figures of our Lady and St. John." Described in Hutton (!957) as a 14th-century font on which a graffito reads: "Anthony Sedley, 1649, prisner." Gardner (1852) has: "ANTHONYE SEDLEY, 1649, PRISNER" [www.genoot.com/engl/oxf/b/burford/gardner.html] [accessed 6 May 2005]. Hutton (ibid.) explains that Sedley was one of Cromwell's Levellers "who were imprisoned by him for refusing to fight the Irish; three were shot in the churchyard after three days, watched by the rest (including Sedley) from the roof." Noted in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974). The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SP2531312405] notes: "Parish Church. C12 (? earlier origins) developed to present complex plan by late C15. Heavily restored by Street in 1870 […] excellent font with Rood". On-site notes: considerable damage evident on the upper rim, some covered by the overlap of the lead-lining of the basin well; the E side of the font shows a Crucifixion scene with Mary and St. John; on the S side St. John the Baptist with lamb, St. Catherine with wheel and, perhaps, St. Margaret; on the W side St. Andrew with the saltire cross; on the N side perhaps St. Lawrence and St. Gregory, both tentative identifications [as identified in David Oakey's 'Church Details', in ox18.myhosting.net/burfordchurchplan.htm].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Wilkes, of www.allthecotswolds.com, for his photographs of church and font and his help in documenting this font]
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 594158 5740744
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.8096, -1.6342
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 48′ 34.56″ N, 1° 38′ 3.12″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, type unknown
Number of Pieces: one
Font Shape: cylindrical, unmounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage System: centre hole in basin & base
Drainage Notes: lead lining
Rim Thickness: 10-19 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 56 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 76-86 cm* (very irregular)
Basin Depth: 35 cm*
Basin Total Height: 83 cm*
Height of Base: 23 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 106 cm*
Font Height (with Plinth): 123 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * BSI on-site
INSCRIPTION
Inscription Language: English
Inscription Location: scratched on the lead lining
Inscription Text: "ANTHONY SEDLEY, 1649, PRISNER" [or "ANTHONYE SEDLEY, 1649, PRISNER"]
Inscription Notes: scratched on the lead of the font rather than inscribed [cf. Font notes for details]
Inscription Source: Hutton (1957: 64); Gardner (1852)
LID INFORMATION
Material: wood
Apparatus: yes; counterweight
REFERENCES
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 43, 69, 227, 231 and ill. on p. 239
- 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. 38
- Daubeny, Ulric, Ancient Cotswold Churches, Cheltenham: J. Burrow, 1921, ill.
- Gardner, Robert, History, gazetteer and directory of the County of Oxford, comprising [...], Peterborough: Printed and published by Robert Gardner, 1852, [www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp] [accessed 30 June 2007]
- Hutton, Graham, English Parish Churches, London: Thames & Hudson, 1976, p. 64
- Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing], p. 237
- Kelly, Kelly's Directory of Oxfordshire, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd., 1911, p. 62 / [http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp] [accessed 30 June 2007]
- 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=50843] [accessed 22 January 2007]
- Moule, Thomas, The English counties delineated; or, A topographical description of England [...], London: George Virtue, 1837 [vol. 2], vol. 2: 68
- Murray, John [the firm], Handbook for travellers in Berks. Bucks and Oxfordshire, including a [...], London: John Murray, 1882, p. 286
- Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England: Oxfordshire, Oxford, London: Published under the sanction of the Central Commitee of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland [by] John Henry Parker, 1850, [unpaged -- entry 185] / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=maikb1i3wSUC&pg=PT144&lpg=PT144&dq=longcot+church+font&source=web&ots=p3k5tJJE6J&sig=KYjkm8H5wOoAuH7BvnLp7JqMPus&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA17,M1] [accessed 31 December 2008]
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Oxfordshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1974, p. 505
- Skelton, Joseph, Skelton's engraved illustrations of the principal antiquities of Oxfordshire, from the original drawings of F. Mackenzie, Oxford: J. Skelton, 1823, plate
- Tymms, Samuel, Family Topographer, being a compendious account of the antient and present state of the counties of England: vol. IV, Oxford circuit, London: Nichols & Son, 1834, p. 137 / [http://books.google.com/books?id=qcouAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=kempsford+church+font&source=web&ots=h2yFXWCzVN&sig=wFjiUVbwBUazMXVSJwmmw5-jmlA] [accessed 23 September 2007]
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 92