Toller Fratrum / Little Toller / Tolre

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Results: 20 records

Click to view images

B01: human figure - standing - raised hands holding rope encircling upper rim of basin

Scene Description: unsusual grouping of figures and three quadrupeds depicted in an unusual manner [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

B02: human figure - standing - left hand holds rope - right hand on smaller figure - three additional heads - sacrament - baptism

Scene Description: unsusual grouping of figures and three quadrupeds depicted in an unusual manner [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

B03: animal - mammal - lion - bicorporate - standing on three pillars - cow - three human heads

Scene Description: unsusual grouping of figures and three quadrupeds depicted in an unusual manner [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

B04: human figure - standing - 3 - next to pillar with cross - sacrament - baptism

Scene Description: unsusual grouping of figures and three quadrupeds depicted in an unusual manner [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

B05: human figure - standing - right arm around pillar - left arm on head of smaller figure - sacrament - baptism

Scene Description: unsusual grouping of figures and three quadrupeds depicted in an unusual manner [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 27 April 2004)

view of font

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Barnes (1891)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Barnes (1891)

Copyright Instructions: PD

design element - motifs - braid

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

design element - patterns - interlace - weave

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

animal - fabulous animal or monster - bicorporate - unidentified - standing on pillars

Scene Description: a lion?

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

animal - fabulous animal or monster - bicorporate - unidentified - standing on pillars

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

view of church exterior in context - southwest view

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

view of church exterior - southwest view

view of church exterior

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 27 April 2004)

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: Bird on pedestal, etc.

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 27 April 2004)

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: procession?

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 27 April 2004)

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: atlante figure

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 27 April 2004)

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital image of an undated (?) B&W photograph by John Egerton Christmas Piper (1902-1992)

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

INFORMATION

Font ID: 00800TOL

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Date Visited: 2000-07-21

Font Century and Period/Style: 11th - 12th century, Norman

Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Basil

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Church Patron Saint(s): St. Basil

Church Notes: The farmhouse west of the church belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem (notice the chained monkey holding a mirror on the farmhouse). In the church itself there is a fragment of sculpture embeded in the wall, which shows Mary Magdalen washing Christ's feet.

Church Address: Toller Fratrum, Dorset DT2, UK

Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom

Directions to Site: Located near Maiden Newton, about 15 km NW of Dorchester, on a one-track road off the A356, past the village, leading to a farm. The small and unimposing church building is next to the farm.

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury

Historical Region: Hundred of Tollerford

Font Notes: Click to view

There is an entry for Toller [Fratrum and Porcorum] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/XX0000/toller-fratrum-and-porcorum/] [accessed 28 January 2018], but it mentions neither cleric not church in it. The 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874) notes: "The only feature worthy of notice [in the rebult church] of the antiquary is the font. This, however, is highly curious and of great antiquity. It has a bowl of cylindrical shape. Near the rim is a shallow interlaced moulding about four inches deep, which has a small cable ornament at the bottom, below which, down to a small circular moulding (a species of chevron ornament), the whole of the bowl is covered with sculptured figures, evidently intended to represent some subject of church history." Noted in the Handbook for travellers... (1869): "a fine Norman font". Barnes (1891) illustrates the font and argues: "These interlaced designs, though continued into the Norman period, were used at an early date; in a Saxon MS. of the 8th century (Evangelia Sacra Nero D.4) are designs very similar to this [...]", and suggests an early Saxon date for this font. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Described in Holmes (1922): "Old font sculptured with the heads of what may be saints, a possible relic of Saxon times; some antiquaries have declared the work to be British of the later days of the Roman occupation". Noted in Long (1923) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. "a particularly rich example [...with] quaint figures on the bowl". A paper read before the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (1932), by R.H. White, notes the font and adds the following: "The carving may be a symbolical representation of the foundation of the Church of Christ, supported by the central figure of the Christ, together with His apostles, supporting the circular cornice, some, having laid down their lives as martyrs, being represented by the horizontal figures; while the two animal figures may represent the Holy Spirit and the Lamb of God [...] The font is thought to date back to early Saxon times". Mee (1939) writes: "The tub-shaped font may be Saxon; it is curiously carved with a medley of heads, thought to represent the Lion of Judah helping the human race as described in the Book of Revelation." Photographed by John Piper. Newman & Pevsner (1972) note that the composition of the font decoration is "hardly to be called that". Yapp (1987), who argues for an end-of-11th-century date, identifies the following scenes: "The first is Moses enabling the Israelites to defeat the Amelekites (Exodus 17: 8-16). The second represents a conflation of the story of the two serpents attacking a man (a type of the damned in Hell) and that of the worship of the golden calf (Exodus 32). In the last a group of three figures represents, either Christ or St. Michael saving souls from Hell." In Newman & Pevsner (1972). In Wood (1999). On-site notes: the baptismal font at Toller Fratrum has a most interesting and intriguing iconographic programme; the rim of the cylindrical font has a wide band of weaved pattern framed at the bottom by a moulding of rope motif, is held in both hands by a standing figure; to the right: a face at top, near his left arm; at bottom right, a human figure without legs; next right, a figure rests its right hand on the previous figure's head, while the left hand holds the upper rope motif; next right are two faces, one above the other, the lower one upside down; the next group of figures to the right make a strange composition: at the left side a wreathed column on which rest the legs of an animal (lion?) which faces right; its head serves also as the head to the other animal (lion?) on the right, facing left whose legs stand on two wreathed columns, front legs on one, back legs on another; in between the columns, under the one head a quadruped (bovine?) depicted vertically, legs to the left and three heads filling the gaps; to the right of the right animal's hind quarters three human figures appear to form a group, the rightmost one holding a processional cross; next on the right is a bearded male figure holding a tall staff-like object with a wide, rounded top in his right hand; a smaller legless figure holds, with his right arm, the left arm of the bearded figure; a representation of the sacrament of baptism may be part of the iconographic programme; the bottom of the basin sides has herringbone pattern; the font, which stands on a square plinth with kneeling stone, appears to have been cleaned recently [site visited on July 2000] and is in an excellent state of repair.

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to C.S. Drake for bringing this font to our attention initially, and to Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk], for the added images of the font and church, and Yapp's article].

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 528281 5624827

Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.77451, -2.5989

Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 46′ 28.24″ N, 2° 35′ 56.04″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone

Number of Pieces: one

Font Shape: tub-shaped

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Rim Thickness: 7 cm*

Diameter (inside rim): 45 cm*

Diameter (includes rim): 60 cm*

Basin Depth: 22 cm*

Basin Total Height: 64 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 64 cm*

Font Height (with Plinth): 104 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * BSI on-site

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern

Material: wood

Apparatus: no

Notes: Octagonal pyramid shape with Greek pattee cross finial.

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; p. 45-46 and pl. 2
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 197
Holmes, Edric, Wanderings in Wessex: an Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter, London: Robert Scott Roxburghe House, [1922]
Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Wakefield: E.P. Pub. Ltd., 1973, vol. 2: 707-708
Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; p. 67, 75
Mee, Arthur, The King's England. Dorset: Thomas Hardy's Country, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, p. 263
Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 219 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hYEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=hemyock+church+font&source=bl&ots=wV68KRXFhH&sig=_-CnLgSLeYKjq8YBQMsxSQrjbvA&hl=en&ei=1IKRSeTLOojKNO3c_YkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA161,M1] [accessed 10 February 2009]
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 19, 424
Stanier, Peter, Dorset's archaeology: archaeology in the landscape, 4000BC to AD1700, Tiverton: Dorset Books, 2004, p. 139, 141 and ills. on p. 140
White, R.H., "Toller Fratrum church", LIII, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1932, pp. lxxvii-lxxviii; p. lxxvii-lxxviii
Wood, Rita, "Real People in English Romanesque Sculpture", Summer 1999, 11, Medieval Life: The Magazine of the Middle Ages, 1999, pp. [8]-15; p. 13
Yapp, W.B., "The Iconography of the Font at Toller Fratrum", 109, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1987, pp. 1-4; p. 1-4