West Mersea / Meresaiam
Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2008
Standing permission
Results: 5 records
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - pointed arches - 16
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - nave - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - nave - looking west
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 01089WES
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century [basin only] -- 4th-5th century [base only - re-carved?] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Peter & St. Paul
Church Address: High St, West Mersea CO5 8QD, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1206 383222
Site Location: Essex, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B1025, on the SW corner of Mersea Island, 15 km S of Colchester
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Chelmsford
Historical Region: Hundred of Winstree [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: recycled font?; the base: former Roman column? -- disappeared font (the one from the 11thC church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are two entries for [West] Mersea [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TM1031/west-mersea/] [accessed 2 June 2024] neither of which mentions priest or church in it. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font made from the re-cut drum of a Roman column, probably from the nearby Roman villa. Bond (1908) lists "another example, of doubtful authenticity" at West Mersea, among a number of baptismal fonts carved out of former Roman columns. Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: octagonal bowl of Purbeck marble, each face with two shallow panels with pointed heads; also Purbeck marble base, early 13th-century." Listed in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble. Pevsner (1976) does not mention the Roman connection, nor do Bettley and Pevsner (2007): "Font. Of the Purbeck type, C13, octagonal, with two of the usual shallow blank pointed arches to each side." In Paul (1986) and Stocker (1997) where the shaft is identified as the reused Roman stone. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: TM0091612504] notes: "Tower of the Saxo/Norman overlap (C11) of 3 stages, C17 embattled parapet [...] C11 windows in north and south walls of ground storey [...] Font of C13, with octagonal bowl of Purbeck marble-later stem."
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are garteful to John Whitworth, of www.essexchurches.info, for his photographs of church and font
COORDINATES
UTM: 31U 355871 5738089
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.7751, 0.910885
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 46′ 30.36″ N, 0° 54′ 39.19″ E
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble?)
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: octagonal, plain and flat; modern
REFERENCES
- Bettley, James, Essex, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007, p. 822
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 99
- Cox, John Charles J., English Church Fittings Furniture and Accessories, London: B.T. Batsford, 1922, p. 87
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 167
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, An Inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1916-1923, vol. 3: 231
- Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975, p. 77
- Paul, W. Norman, Essex Fonts and Font Covers: Norman to Nineteenth Century, Baldock, Herts.: Egon Publishers, 1986, p. 211
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Essex, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976, p. 419
- Stocker, D.A., "Fons et origo: The Symbolic Death and Resurrection of English Font Stones", I (1997b), Church Archaeology, 1997, pp. 17-25; p. 25