Wells nr. Bristol No. 1 / Welle

Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

Results: 28 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - columns with capitals and bases

Scene Description: NB: although the arcade now appears blind now, the arches are said to have contained a haloed image in each; they were hacked off at some point in the past -- there is a faint shade of the figures' contours, but only the left arch here shows a faint silhouette of the halo

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

design element - motifs - floral or foliage

Scene Description: in each of the spandrels of the arcade -- notice in this image how clearly some of the haloes of the former figures are discernible

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph in http://www.request.org.uk/main/churches/tours/wells/font.htm [accessed 10 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 11 April 2008)

view of church exterior - detail

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of church exterior - detail

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of church exterior - detail

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of church exterior - southeast view - detail

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of church exterior - west view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church exterior - west view

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of church exterior in context - west view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - ceiling - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - chapel

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - detail

Scene Description: [NB: not certain where exactly this was taken; deanery?]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - detail

Scene Description: [NB: not certain where exactly this was taken; deanery?]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - detail

Scene Description: lavabo or stoup? [NB: not certain where exactly this was taken; deanery?]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - detail

Scene Description: lavabo or stoup? [NB: not certain where exactly this was taken; deanery?] [NB: there are only a few fonts or stoups that have animals adorning the inner basins]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - nave - west end

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of church interior - retable

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover - detail

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of font cover

Scene Description: ca. 1635, painted and gilded

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 April 2013 by Pauline Hinson

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author via Colin Hinson

view of font cover

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

view of font cover - detail

Image Source: digital photograph 31 March 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 September 2022)

INFORMATION

FontID: 01124WEL

Church/Chapel: Cathedral Church of St Andrew

Church Patron Saints: St. Andrew

Church Location: Cathedral Green, Wells BA5 2UE, UK

Country Name: England

Location: Somerset, South West

Directions to Site: Located 35 km SSW of Bristol (follow the A37 S to the A39 which leads directly to Wells)

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bath & Wells

Historical Region: Hundred of Wells [in Domesday]

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, by the S wall of the S transept, outside the chapel of St Calixtus

Century and Period: 10th - 12th century, Pre-Conquest? / Norman?

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Mike Strange, of RE:Quest Education, Somerset, to Pauline Hinson, to Colin Smith and to Wells Cathedral, for their photographs of this church and font

Church Notes: first recorded Christian church in Wells was built ca. 705 and dedicated to St Andrew; present building started 1170s

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for this Wells [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/ST5445/wells/] [accessed 19 September 2022]; it mentions the Bishop of Wells as lord in 1066, and as lord tenant-in-chief in 1086. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "In the south transept is a font of the same date as that part of the building" [NB: althopugh unclear from the syntax of the paragraph, Lewis appears to date the south transept to the Eary English period]. An early description at the Cathedral reads: "The [round] Saxon font has survived from the first cathedral […] was originally decorated with carvings of saints, standing under rounded arches. Traces of their halos can still be seen. At some time the figures were chipped off […] The font is still used for baptisms". Noted in the Handbook for travellers… (1869) as a late-Norman font located in the south transept. Wade & Wade (1929) write: "Norm[an] perhaps even Pre-Norm[an] font." Pevsner (1958) remarks: "Dating is no longer possible"; he also notes the font cover: "Naïve Jacobean." Harton's Pitkin Guide (1991) describes it as "the Norman font which has been in regular use for 700 years". Blair (2005) suggests a "tenth century?" dating. This font is most probably Norman, not Saxon; the basin is perfectly cylindrical and has only the columns and arches left on the sides of the original figural ornamentation. The base and plinth are wider and totally plain. A gold and red wooden cover, which Bond (1908) qualifies as "Jacobean", of "a common late type consists of an octagonal lid, molded on the edge, which bears eight radiating trusses, rising from the angles and meeting at the head of a central baluster-shaped post, just below the finial, roughly suggesting a crown"; the lower sides are ornamented with cherubs, one on each panel; this cover is dated to ca. 1635.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.2104, -2.6437

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 12′ 37.44″ N, 2° 38′ 37.32″ W

UTM: 30U 524888 5673283

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Number of Pieces: one

Font Shape: cylindrical (unmounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

LID INFORMATION

Date: circa 1635

Material: wood (oak), oak

Apparatus: no

Notes: The platform of the lid appears octagonal, the sides decorated with gilded cherubs; the centre pivot and the scroll ribs are painted red and gold

REFERENCES

Wells Cathedral (a Pitkin cathedral guide), Andover, Hants.: Pitkin Pictorials, 1991

Blair, John, The Church in Anglo-Saxon society, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005

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

Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831

Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869

Pevsner, Nikolaus, North Somerset and Bristol, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958

Wade, G.H., Somerset, London: Methurn & Co., 1929