Alfold / Aldfold / Alfaude / Alford / Awfold

Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

Results: 10 records

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design element - architectural - arcade - round arches - columns with capitals

Scene Description: containing tall crosses

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

design element - motifs - rope moulding

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

symbol - cross - Greek - Maltese - long stem

Scene Description: one in each arch

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

view of basin - upper view

Image Source: photograph in The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/sr/alfol/index.htm] [accessed 13 July 2008]

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

view of church exterior - southwest end

Scene Description: showing the south porch

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

view of church interior - east side

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Image Source: photograph in The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/sr/alfol/index.htm] [accessed 13 July 2008]

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

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: B&W white glass plate negative of the font at "St Nicholas" church, Alfold, Surrey, taken by William Burrell Muggeridge on 10th January 1906 [ref. UKC-CHR-MUG-BW.F213260] [www.kent.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/all/r.php/22739/show.html]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: beneath the tower (the red & white cords above the font are the ringing handles)

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 September 2011 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 11 September 2011)

INFORMATION

FontID: 01042ALF

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Nicholas

Church Patron Saints: St. Nicholas of Myra [Brayley (1850) has St. Wilfrid]

Church Location: Rosemary Lane, Alfold, Surrey, GU6 8EU

Country Name: England

Location: Surrey, South East

Directions to Site: Located on the B2133, just off the A281, 16 km SE of Guildford, at the border between Sussex and Surrey

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Guildford

Historical Region: Hundred of Blackheath

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave [cf. FontNotes]

Date: ca. 1080-1100?

Century and Period: 11th - 12th century, Norman

Cognate Fonts: The font at Yapton, in West Sussex [cf. FontNotes]

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

No entry for Alfold found in the Domesday survey. Allen (1831) writes: "The font is a circular basin of sandstone, lined with lead, large enough for immersion." Brayley (1850), who gives the dedication as St. Wilfrid's, gives a similar description, almost verbatim. Photographed by William Burrell Muggeridge in 1906. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period [NB: C&H use "Alford"; there is no Alford in Surrey, but Alfold is at the county border between Sussex and Surrey]. Described in the Victoria County History Surrey (Surrey, vol. 3, 1911) as a remarkable font from the old church that is believed to have been built ca. 1100: "Few churches in Surrey have such an interesting font. It is in Bargate stone, tub-shaped, with a broad shallow base of recessed section round which winds a cable-moulding, the upper part of the bowl having an arcade of eight circular-headed arches on square piers with small square imposts -- incised in a very shallow fashin. Within each arch is a Maltese cross on a long stem [...] The date of the font is about 1100, and its design in the matter of the arcade and cosses is remarkably like that of the early font in Yapton Church, Sussex." The VCH (ibid.) points out the similarity between the south and north arcades in this church with the corresponding ones in the church at Rustington (Sussex), and further notes that Yapton, with a font so similar to Alfold's, is "within a few miles of Rustington"; the VCH church interior plan shows the font located by a pillar of the arcade that separtes the nave from the south aisle, the pillar nearest the south doorway. Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a tub-shaped baptismal font of the Norman period; the basin sides are ornamented with a rope moulding and with an arcade that houses crosses in its arches. The baptismal font at Yapton, West Sussex, has the same crosses and arcade ornamentation and the same tub shape Illustrated in Needham (1944). Noted in Pevsner & Nairn (1990 c1971). Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008): ''The font is dateable to c.1080-1100, and thus probably from the first church […] The staple on the rim is presumed to be an original 13thc one.'' The CRSBI (ibid.) gives its location: ''Originally in the S aisle, it now stands at the W end of the nave near the W window.''

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 673673 5663360

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, sandstone [Bargate Stone]

Font Shape: tub-shaped

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: lead lined

Rim Thickness: 11.5 cm [calculated]

Diameter (inside rim): 56 cm*

Diameter (includes rim): 79 cm*

Basin Total Height: 49.5 cm*

Font Height (with Plinth): 97 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * CRSBI (2008)

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern

Material: wood, oak

Apparatus: no

Notes: the present font cover is modern, but the CRSBI [cf. FontNotes] points out the old staple on the rim

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2006-07-25 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Allen, Thomas, A History of the County of Surrey ; comprising every object of topographical, geological, or historical interest, London: Isaac Taylor Hinton, 1831

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

Brayley, Edward Wedlake, A topographical history of Surrey, London: G. Willis, 1850

Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. Accessed: 2008-07-13 00:00:00. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.

Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907

Neeham, Albert, How to study an old church, London: Batsford, 1944

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Surrey, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1990 [c1971]

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