North Walsham / Walsam

Results: 10 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - Gothic arches - 16

Scene Description: a pair on each panel of the basin

Image Source: B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - trefoiled arches - 8 arches

Scene Description: one on each panel of the pedestal base

Image Source: B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of church exterior - southeast view

Scene Description: Photo caption: "Mainly Perpendicular"

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 22 June 1969 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/N/N Walsham St Nicholas' church from SE [5264] 1969-06-22.jpg] [accessed 5 May 2014]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church exterior - tower

Scene Description: Photo caption: "The tower and spire were 147 feet high but the latter fell in 1724"

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 22 March 1940 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/N/N Walsham St Nicholas' church ruined tower [3330] 1940-03-22.jpg] [accessed 5 May 2014]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church interior - chancel - rood-screen, choir-screen; iconostasis - detail

Scene Description: the north side of the dado -- Photo caption: "Only the dado remains of this fifteenth century design and the work is by the same artist. There are twenty panels, eighteen of which have painted saints."

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 April 2008 by Miss Steel [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/772335] [accessed 5 May 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church interior - chancel - rood-screen, choir-screen; iconostasis - detail

Scene Description: the south side of the dado -- Photo caption: "Only the dado remains of this fifteenth century design and the work is by the same artist. There are twenty panels, eighteen of which have painted saints."

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 April 2008 by Miss Steel [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/772323] [accessed 5 May 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 April 2008 by Miss Steel [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/772333] [accessed 5 May 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font and cover

Image Source: B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 April 2008 by Miss Steel [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/772331] [accessed 5 May 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font cover

Image Source: B&W photograph in Cautley (1949: 139)

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission received from the publisher

INFORMATION

FontID: 01085NOR

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Nicholas

Church Patron Saints: St. Nicholas of Myra

Church Location: Market Place, North Walsham, Norfolk, NR28 9BT

Country Name: England

Location: Norfolk, East Anglia

Directions to Site: Located 30-35 km N of Norwich on the A149

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Norwich

Historical Region: Hundred of Tunstede

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

Century and Period: 14th - 15th century, Medieval

Cognate Fonts: another such cover at Ufford

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Jonathan Plunkett for the photographs of this church taken by his father, George Plunkett, in 1940 and 1969

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There are three entries for North Walsham, [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG2830/north-walsham/] [accessed 5 May 2014], two of which report churches and churclands in them. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and was always in the patronage of St. Bennet's abbey of Holm. [...] The church has two isles and a chancel, and is a large pile; it had a square tower and 6 bells, but the tower fell down May 16, 1724; the length of the church with the chancel is about 45 yards; the breadth of the church with both the isles 26 yards, the tower was large and curious, 49 yards in height." The present font cover is noted in Bloxam (1859) and in Howard & Crossley (1919). Andre (1889) writes: "Pyramidal covers of rich character have adorned the fonts at Worstead and North Walsham, the latter example ending in a pelican for finial as in many other cases both at home and abroad". Lingwood ([1908?]) writes: "The font attracts much attention. The cover, which is profusely ornamented, is esteemed one of the richest of the kind in the kingdom." Cox (1946) describes the font cover as a "sumptuous example" of 15th-century type cover. Also without a word for the font itself, Jenkins (1999) dwells on the font cover: "The splendid font cover of c. 1450 leaves no surface without cusp or pinnacle, rising the full height of the nave to a crowning pelican. It is more delicate and in many respects a finer work than more famous covers at Castle Acre or Trunch." Bond (1908) mentions that, apparently, in the past, the font was surrounding by railings [Bond cites Neale's Churches as source], railings which have been destroyed in modern times; Bond (ibid.) describes the cover as a fine example of the Gothic style and identifies the finial as a pelican; his illustration (ibid.) shows the font partially: an octagonal mounted font ornamented with a blind arcade of sixteen Gothic arches on the basin and another, with eight trefoil arches, on the octagonal pedestal base. [NB: Bond's textual reference on p. 289 cites "North Walsingham" but it refers to the cover at North Walsham]. Described and illustrated in Cautley (1949) as "lovely lofty and tabernacled". The cover is noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1997) as "much restored". Described and illustrated in Knott (2008).

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.8216, 1.3874

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 49′ 17.76″ N, 1° 23′ 14.64″ E

UTM: 31U 391336 5853644

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Number of Pieces: two?

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Date: 15th century? - Perpendicular

Material: wood, oak?

Apparatus: yes; attached to a beam above the font

Notes: [cf. FontNotes for details]

REFERENCES

André, J. Lewis, "Notes on Ritualistic Ecclesiology in North-East Norfolk", XLVI, Archaeological Journal, 1889, pp. 136-155; r["References"]

Blomefield, Francis, An essay towards a topographical history of Norfolk, 1805-1810

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

Cautley, Henry Munro, Norfolk Churches, Ipswich: Norman Adlard & Co., 1949

Cox, John Charles J., English Church Fittings Furniture and Accessories, London: B.T. Batsford, 1922

Cox, John Charles, Parish Churches of England, 5th rev. ed., London: Batsford, 1946

Davies, J.G., The Architectural Setting of Baptism, London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962

Howard, F.E., English Church Woodwork: a Study in Craftmanship during the Mediaeval period A.D. 1250-1550, London: B.T. Batsford, 1919

Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing]

Knott, Simon, The Norfolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 2004. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon (February 2005]. Accessed: 2009-06-26 00:00:00. URL: www.norfolkchurches.co.uk.

Lingwood, Lemmon, The Illustrated guide to Mundesley-on-Sea, containing brief sketches of many places of interest in the neighbourhood, as well as several excellent illustrations of Mundesley and district, London: Jarrold & Sons, [s.d.] [1908?]

Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; r["References"]

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East [2nd ed.], Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1997