Lewknor / Leuecanole / Levecanole / Luvechenora

Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

Results: 12 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - motifs - circle - beaded-tape - motif inside

Scene Description: the inside motif varies: rosettes, cruciform shapes

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 25 March 1986 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

design element - patterns - intersecting circles - beaded-tape

Scene Description: the pattern changes with the last column of circles on the right

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 25 March 1986 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

design element - patterns - linked circles - beaded-tape

Scene Description: the only links appear when the pattern changes from intersection circles on the left

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 25 March 1986 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

head - grotesque or fantastic?

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 21 February 2009 by John Ward [http://homepage.mac.com/john.ward/oxfordshirechurches]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: notice the damage to the lower area of the basin

Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 25 March 1986 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of church exterior - south door

Image Source: digital photograph taken 26 May 2013 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3496199] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 September 2013 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3657600] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Image Source: digital photograph taken 26 May 2013 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/35066368] [accessed 9 November 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 30 August 2008 by John Ward

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Image Source: Mackenzie's copper engraving for Skelton's 1823 book 'Antiquities of Oxfordshire'

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font in context

Scene Description: though very difficult to see it here, the troll-like head is inside the top circle on the right

Image Source: photograph taken 25 March 1986 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

INFORMATION

FontID: 01039LEW

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Margaret [originally St. Mary's?]

Church Patron Saints: St. Margaret of Antioch [aka Margaret the Virgin, Marina] [earlier dedicated to St. Mary?]

Church Location: Lewknor, Oxfordshire, OX49 5TH

Country Name: England

Location: Oxfordshire, South East

Directions to Site: Located off the B4009-M40 crossroads, 4 km NE of Watlington, 6 km SE of Tetsworth, 9 km S of Thame, 25-30 km WSW of Aylesbury

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford

Historical Region: Hundred of Lewknor

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Century and Period: 12th century, Late Norman

Cognate Fonts: somewhat similar to the font at Canterbury St. Martin's

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Ward, of Oxfordshire Churches [http://homepage.mac.com/john.ward/oxfordshirechurches], and to Timothy Marlow, for their photographs of this font

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There are two entries for Lewknor [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SU7197/lewknor/] [accessed 9 November 2014], but neither mentions cleric or church in it. A copper engraving of this font and cover, by F. Mackenzie appears in Joseph Skelton’s 'Antiquities of Oxfordshire' (1823). Noted in Tymms (1834) as "circular, enriched". Noted in The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850): "Font late N[orman], covered with interlace work, resembling that of St. Martin's, Canterbury." In Murray (1882). Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a cylindrical tub font of the Norman period/style with busy dotted-tape motif forming patterns of circles with rosette inserts all around the basin. It stands on a modern circular squat base. [NB: whether it was in better shape in Skelton's time than in Bond's own, or the Mackenzie's engraving improved on the original, the font appears in much better shape in the earlier source]. Noted in Kelly's Directory of 1911 [http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp] [accessed 3 July 2007]: "the font is Early Norman". Noted in Tyrrell-Green (1928). The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Oxon, vol. 8, 1964) notes: "It seems that there was no church at Lewknor in 1146, when Pope Eugenius III confirmed Abingdon Abbey in the possession of Lewknor without mentioning a church there. (fn. 279) The first documentary evidence for the church is the confirmation by Innocent III in 1200 of some tithes granted by Geoffrey de Abbefeld and a pension from Lewknor church to the abbey. (fn. 280) But the foundation of the church cannot be much later than 1146 for it contains late Norman work [...] The cylindrical font carved with a pattern of linked roundels also dates from the 12th century". In Sherwood and Pevsner (1974): "Font. C12. Cylindrical, with a pattern of interlacing beaded circles, some enclosing crosses and rosettes." The carver of the pattern on this font was obviously skillful, as the pattern changes from crossed circles of beaded-tape to linked circles, to encircled floral motifs, etc., and he (?) had a sense of humour: none of the sources consulted mention a head in the busy pattern of the font: it is inscribed in a frame of circles; it is humanoid, troll-like [NB; it is located in the upper row, northwest side of the basin].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.67307, -0.966268

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 40′ 23.05″ N, 0° 57′ 58.57″ W

UTM: 30U 640625 5726635

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: tub-shaped

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: lead-lined

LID INFORMATION

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: flat platform with curved ribs-around-a-central-pivot type

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2017-11-01 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

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

Kelly, Kelly's Directory of Oxfordshire, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd., 1911

Murray, John [the firm], Handbook for travellers in Berks. Bucks and Oxfordshire, including a [...], London: John Murray, 1882

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

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Oxfordshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1974

Skelton, Joseph, Skelton's engraved illustrations of the principal antiquities of Oxfordshire, from the original drawings of F. Mackenzie, Oxford: J. Skelton, 1823

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

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