Winterborne Whitechurch / Winterbourne Whitechurch / Winterborne Whitchurch
Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Standing permission
Results: 22 records
view of font - west side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - east side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - north side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: B&W photograph by the Rev. E.V. Tanner in Long (1923)
Copyright Instructions: PD
Christ - monogram - IHS - in a shield
Scene Description: NE side of the font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 30 May 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
symbol - shield - blank
Scene Description: SE side of the font: though blank now, it bore an inscription earlier [cf. Font notes and Inscription area]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 30 May 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
symbol - shield - coat of arms - Rochford family
Scene Description: NW side of the font: three rampant lions
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: detail of a photograph taken 30 May 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - trefoiled arches
Scene Description: the arch supports continue down the stem
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: photograph taken 30 May 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
design element - motifs - vine
Scene Description: all around
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - motifs - moulding
Scene Description: above the decorated band
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of basin - upper view
Scene Description: showing the staples of the old cover and the central drain hole
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
symbol - shield - coat of arms - John Herring
Scene Description: SW side of the font: three herrings
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - north view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover in context
Scene Description: looking south
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - looking west
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - architectural - buttress - crocketed pinnacle
Scene Description: three (?) on each of the columns of the base
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: photograph taken 30 May 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
design element - motifs - moulding
Scene Description: on the central shaft and on the buttresses of the outer columns
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015
Image Source: photograph taken 30 May 1981 by Timothy Marlow
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)
information
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
inscription
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - plan, elevation, section and sketch
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 01196WIN
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1450?
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century (mid), Perpendicular
Workshop/Group/Artisan: heraldic font
Cognate Fonts: Queen's Camel, Somerset & Bradford Abbas, Dorset
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the S aisle, near the S entrance ^cf. FontNotes
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: Chescombe Lane, Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset, DT11 0AN
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on the A354, 9-10 km SW of Blandford Forum, 17 km NE of Dorchester
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury
Additional Comments: famous person font? the rev. Samuel Wesley, father of John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodists, was born here and probably baptised in this font
Font Notes:
Click to view
Gough (1792) writes: "The font at Winterborne Whitchurch, Dorset, is of a very singular form, standing on a carved shaft with four pillars at the corners adorned with purfled finials, and with shields charged with arms and inscriptions alternately". Lewis' 'Topographical Dictionary of England' (1831 and 1848) mentions a curious ancient font in this church. Noted in the Handbook ofor travellers… (1869). Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a heraldic baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Described in Bond (1908) as a baptismal font of the same type as Queen's Camel and Bradford Abbas: the bowl rests on central stem but has non-constructional legs at the corners charmingly hollowed into niches. According to an inscription and drawing which appeared in Hutchins (1861-1873) the third shield contained a text from Mark 16: 16, and the name of William Holloway, churchwarden, both inscribed on the shield before 1757. Hutchins (ibid.) identifies the emblem on another shield, "three herrings hauriant in fess", as the arms of John Herring, lord of nearby Clenston manor, and the other, "a fess dauncette between three lions rampant", as the arms of the Rochford of Whitchurch; the fourth shield contains the monogram IHS. Hutchins (ibid. further notes that "a similar font occurs at Bradford Abbas". The drawing "was made by William Shave, parish-clerk, and a carpenter" according to the old inscription (a new legend explains the source of the drawing as well as some of the changes made to the font). The polygonal wooden cover is pyramidal, of a later date, probably 17th century. The Rev. Samuel Wesley, father of John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodists, was born here and probably baptised in this font. Long (1923) describes it as one of the best two Perpendicular fonts in Dorset [the other one, quite similar in design, is at Bradford Abbas]. The RCHM (1970) identifies the emblems thus: 1)NE: IHS in black-letter; 2)SE: blank; 3)SW: arms of Herring; 4)NW: arms of Rochford; it dates the font to the mid-15th century, and the cover to the 17th century. Mee (1939) dates the font to the 14th century and describes the cover as Jacobean. In Newman & Pevsner (1972). Fully illustrated in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk] with the following note: "According to a drawing in the Bodleian Library (Gough Maps, Dorset, f.76) the blank shield formerly bore the inscription: 'He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved' (Mark 16:16). William Holloway Churchwarden 1757'". The present location of the font reportedly dates to the aftermath of the 1867 fire in this church.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Don Shave, to Gerald Duke, to Robin Adeney and The Dorset Historic Churches Trust [www.dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk] and to Timothy Marlow for the information on, and photographs of this font, inscriptions and church
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 553975 5627859
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.799955, -2.234081
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 47′ 59.84″ N, 2° 14′ 2.69″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, sandstone
Number of Pieces: six
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Rim Thickness: 15 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 56 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 86 cm*
Basin Depth: 22 cm*
Height of Basin Side: 23 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 108 cm*
Font Height (with Plinth): 131.25 cm** [approx.]
Notes on Measurements: * Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]] -- ** [The old legend by William Shave gives the height of the font as "three foot six inches and a half"; of the cover, "three foot three inches and a half" -- his measurement for the height of the font obviously includes the plinth]
INSCRIPTION
Inscription Location: on two of the shields
Inscription Text: NE shield: "IHS"
SE shield: ["He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). William Holloway, Churchwarden 1757]
Inscription Notes: [cf. FontNotes] -- the text on the SE shield was not originally carved in 1450 but added ca. 1757
Inscription Source: [cf. FontNotes]
LID INFORMATION
Date: Jacobean -- 17th century?
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
REFERENCES
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 255
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 170, 198
- Gough, Richard, "Description of the old font in the Church of East Meon, Hampshire, 1789: with some observations on fonts", X, Archaeologia, 1792, pp. 183-209; p. 194 and fn
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1970, vol. 3, pt. 2: 309-311
- Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Wakefield: E.P. Pub. Ltd., 1973, vol. 1: 200-201
- Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Westminster: J.B. Nichols, 1861-1873, vol. 1: 68
- 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, vol. 4: p. 521 / [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51415] [accessed 19 March 2007]
- Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; p. 71, 72-73, 76
- Mee, Arthur, The King's England. Dorset: Thomas Hardy's Country, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, p. 311
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 201
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 23, 488