Rothbury / Rowbery

PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

Results: 24 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

New Testament - events from Resurrection to Pentecost - Ascension - Apostles present

Scene Description: as identified in Kendrick [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Robert Newall

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of June 11, 2004)

animal - mammal - lion - passant

Scene Description: caught in the plant-scroll of the panel

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV) [detail]

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

animal - reptile - lizzard? - 2

Scene Description: with a man and interlace [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV) [detail]

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

design element - motifs - 4

Scene Description: vase- or spindle-like; one on each chamfer of the basin

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Robert Newall

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of June 11, 2004)

design element - motifs - interlace

Scene Description: with lizzards (?) and man

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV) [detail]

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

design element - motifs - interlace - knot - linked knots

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

design element - motifs - interlace - quatrefoil - in a square

Scene Description: on two of the sides of the basin

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

design element - motifs - interlace - reticular

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

design element - motifs - plant-scroll

Scene Description: with a lion caught in it

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV) [detail]

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

human figure - male

Scene Description: holding the tail of lizzard-like beasts at the bottom of the interlace panel

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV) [detail]

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

inscription

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Robert Newall

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of June 11, 2004)

symbol - cross - Latin - tréflée

Scene Description: on the side of the basin which has the date [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Robert Newall

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of June 11, 2004)

view of base

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV)

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

view of base - detail

Scene Description: front side of the base

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV) [detail]

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

view of church exterior - south view

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of church interior - looking east

Scene Description: Source caption: "Interior of All Saints Church, Rothbury, Northumberland. Rothbury's Anglican parish church building - All Saints' Church - dates from circa 1850, largely replacing but in parts incorporating the fabric of a former Saxon edifice, including the chancel, the east wall of the south transept and the chancel arch."

Image Source: digital photograph 20 July 2012 by Derek Voller [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3076227] [accessed 21 April 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5

view of font

Scene Description: on the basin, a cross and the date; on the base, the Resurrection

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font

Scene Description: on the basin, a quatrefoil in a square; on the base a reticular interlace

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font

Scene Description: a quatrefoil interlace on the basin; on the base a complex interlace of snakes, reptiles, and a human?

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font

Scene Description: a linked-knot interlace on the basin; on the base a lion caught in a vegetal interlace

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph by Robert Newall

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of June 11, 2004)

view of font and cover

Scene Description: Source caption: "The ancient font in All Saints Church, Rothbury. This font with a pedestal taken from a section of an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft, showing what is said to be the earliest carved representation in Great Britain of the Ascension of Christ."

Image Source: digital photograph 20 July 2012 by Derek Voller [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3076236] [accessed 21 April 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5

view of font cover

Image Source: digital photograph by Phil & Molly Brown [http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/northeast/nutpage22.htm] [accessed 14 January 2010]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION [requested] NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of fragment

Scene Description: fragments of the head and upper part of the shaft of the Rothbury cross (now housed in the Blackgate Museum, Newcastle)

Image Source: Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIii)

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

INFORMATION

FontID: 00787ROT

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of All Saints

Church Patron Saints: All Saints

Church Location: Church St, Rothbury, Morpeth NE65 7UP, United Kingdom

Country Name: England

Location: Northumberland, North East

Directions to Site: Located off the B6341-B6342 crosroads, 18 km SW of Alnwick, about 50 km WNW of Newcastle

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave, by the tower entrance

Date: 1664

Century and Period: 9th century (base) - 17th century(basin) -- [composite font], Early Christian / Medieval [composite]

Cognate Fonts: Dolton, etc.

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Mr. Robert Newall for permitting BSI to reproduce his photograph of this font

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

No entry found for Rothbury in the Domesday survey. Mackenzie (1825) notes: "The pedestal font is worthy of observation. It is not exactly square: at the bottom, where it appears intended to be fixed into some foundation-stone, two opposite sides are 18 inches in breadth, the other 14 inches; but where the sculpture begins, the edges of the stone are taken off. The work, in bas-relief, on the west side, is about 26 inches long, and 14 inches broad, and, it is presumed, represents our Lord sitting in judgment. The principal figure has lost its head, but holds a scroll in the left hand. On each side is the figure of an angel kneeling, and below them a crowd of heads lifted up, some hands clasping books, others elevated, or laid upon the breast. The other sides contain rich ornamental sculpture, of fancy figures interwoven with foliage, such as are seen upon the obelisk in Bewcastle church-yard, in Cumberland. From their similarity, some people have concluded that they are works of the same date." Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "the font, which is very antique, bears a rudely sculptured representation of the Redeemer sitting in Judgment." Wilson (1870) notes the Early English chancel of the church, and introduces the font as "more ancient, for, although the bowl is dated 1664, the stem of it is composed of a portion of a Saxon cross. In the progress of the re-building twenty years ago, the limbs and a portion of the shaft of a Saxon cross were found beneath the floor. These were claimed by the contractor as old materials, but were ultimately safely housed in the Museum of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries. William Dickson, Esq., F.S.A., was the first, I believe, to discover that the stem of the font was a portion of this same cross. It has four surfaces, but it is not precisely square. The angles are canted. Facing the east, the surface is covered with the winding, mazy entanglement of sculptured lines recognised as Saxon interlaced ornament. On the next, among some spiral bold curves, perhaps intended for conventional foliage, a hound-like quadruped is represented. On the last, there are four serpentine forms interlaced, in couples, into a compact, yet flowing, design; the two nearest the base have animals in their mouths, similar in characted to the dog-like before before mentioned; and the two above bend in most grateful corresponding curves over two round, and apparently, human heads." Wilson then gives an interpretation of the programme as understood by Dickson [cf. supra]. The church plan in Wilson (ibid.) shows the font located at the west end of the nave, by the north side of the tower arch, on the outside of it. Wilson (ibid.) further notes that "the vestry book contains many interesting entries, including a resolution to raise a rate to pay for the bowl and cover of the font, in 1662." Murray describes the font but gives the inscription date as "1654", and informs that the rest of the cross, of which the base is part, is at the antiquarian museum in Newcastle. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908); the post-Reformation basin is square with chamfered angles and not very deep, its sides ornamented with a cross, interlace and other motifs; the side with the cross on it has also the date 1664 carved on it in Arabic numerals; the most interesting part of this font, however, is the Anglo-Saxon base, a square-base block widely identified as having been originally the shaft of an Anglo-Saxon cross. Kendrick (1938) describes the Rothbury cross as "probably the most imposing cross of all in the Carolingian series", and studies the surviving fragments of this Anglo-Saxon cross which he dates to ca. 800 AD; Kendrick informs that "the head and a part of the shaft are housed in the Blackgate Museum at Newcastle", with "the foot functioning as the pedestal of the font at Rothbury Church". Kendrick (ibid.) describes the front of the base thus: "The Ascension panel with its excited group of Apostles below the figure of Christ; the panel to the right is described as a plant-scroll that contains a "long lean striding lion with the shaggy mane extending the legth of his back. He has become enmeshed in the scroll at which he bites, and he is trapped by that uncomfortable Anglian 'lock' of the legs"; the side to the left of the Ascension is "a design in the form of an interlacement of long-tailed lizzard-like creatures clawing and biting each other, among them being a little man who holds the feet of two of the monsters in his hands". A cage-like cover of unknown date appears on the basin. Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928). Sharp (2000) mentions a "Lady's Well" at Holystone, near Rothbury [on the south side of the Coquet, east of Harbottle] as the site of a holy well in which St. Ninian carried out baptisms in the 5th century. Two hundred year later, ca. 627, St. Paulinus is said to have baptised 3000 Saxons in that very well. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: NU0577201657] notes: "Parish Church, on important Pre-Conquest site. Chancel and east walls of transepts C13, chancel north arcade late C14; remainder 1849-50 by G. Pickering, except for chancel vestries of 1887 and west window of 1900 […] the previous west tower, demolished in 1850, appears to have been of Pre-Conquest, like that of Jarrow,linking two early churches […] Font: shaft is bottom part of important cross of c.800 with Ascension and inhabited vine scrolls; bowl dated 1664 with knotwork and interlace; cover of 1914."

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 55.309, -1.91062

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 55° 18′ 32.4″ N, 1° 54′ 38.23″ W

UTM: 30U 569148 6129718

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, sandstone (red)

Number of Pieces: two

Font Shape: square (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: square

Basin Exterior Shape: square

Height of Base: 71.12 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * in Kendrick (1938: pl. LXIV) as 28 in. [cf. FontNotes]

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: numbers

Inscription Notes: The date applies only to the basin; the base is much earlier

Inscription Location: basin side

Inscription Text: "1664"

Inscription Source: Photograph by Mr. Robert Newall; also in Bond (1985 c1908) [cf. FontNotes]

LID INFORMATION

Date: 1914

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958

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

Friar, Stephen, The Sutton Companion to Churches, Thrupp, Stroud (Gloucs.): Sutton Publishing, 2003

Kendrick, T.D., Anglo-Saxon Art to A.D. 900, London: Methuen & Co., 1938

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

MacKenzie, Eneas, An historical, topographical, and descriptive view of the County of Northumberland, and of those parts of the County of Durham situated north of the river Tyne, with Berwick upon Tweed and […], Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed and published by Mackenzie and Dent […], 1825

Moule, Thomas, The English counties delineated; or, A topographical description of England [...], London: George Virtue, 1837 [vol. 2]

Murray, John (the firm), A handbook for travellers in Durham and Northumberland, London: John Murray ; printed by William Clowes and Sons, 1873

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Northumberland, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957

Sharp, Mick, The Way and the Light, London: Aurum Press, 2000

Stocker, D.A., "Fons et origo: The Symbolic Death and Resurrection of English Font Stones", I (1997b), Church Archaeology, 1997, pp. 17-25; r["References"]

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

Wilson, Frederick Richard, An architectural survey of the churches in the Archdeaconry of Lindisfarne, in the County of Northumberland, containing plans and views […], Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Printed and photo-lithographed by M. and M. W. Lambert, 1870