Congresbury

Standing permission

Results: 4 records

Click to view images

B01: design element - motifs - rope moulding

Scene Description: around the middle of the basin

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 22 January 2007 by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 22 January 2007 by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Scene Description: the font and cover at the west end

Image Source: digital photograph taken 22 January 2007 by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - plan

Image Source: interior plan in [http://www.standrewscongresbury.org/uploads/Church_Plan.jpg] [accessed 15 March 2008]

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

INFORMATION

Font ID: 01218CON

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [basin only] -- 13th century [base only] [composite font], Medieval / composite

Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Andrew

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

Church Patron Saint(s): St. Andrew

Church Address: Congresbury, Bristol BS49 5DX, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1934 833126

Site Location: Somerset, South West, England, United Kingdom

Directions to Site: Located 3 km S of Yatton, about 12 kms ENE of Weston-s-Mare on the A370 to Bristol

Additional Comments: the name of the town is pronounced: "Coomsbury" / altered font / composite font -- if Rutter is right about the original pedestal, when was the base replaced? - and where did the 13thC base come from? Rutter could be wrong by a century, of course -- email sent to parish website requesting image of the font [15 March 2008//mt]

Font Notes: Click to view

Rutter's Westonian guide of 1829 and his Delineations… (1829) note: "The font appears to be truly Norman, and remains upon its original pedestal, in its first situation in one corner, with the ancient stone sit around it." The National Gazetteer (1868) dates this font to the 12th century. Dated to the Early English period in the Handbook for travellers… (1869). Noted in Kelly's Directory of 1883: "the font is of the twelfth century". Wade & Wade (1929) report a Norman font in this church. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a bucket-shaped Norman font of the 11th-12th century; the basin has plain and thin horizontal roll mouldings at the upper and lower ends, and a thicker rope motif around its middle. The base is a cluster of constructional columns mounted on a round lower base and a plinth [cf. infra]. The font cover is of a much later date [cf. infra]: an octagonal cusped pyramid with a short "crown" of vertical sides around the bottom. Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928). Described in Betjeman (1980) as a Norman font of the 12th century. The Parish web site [http://www.standrewscongresbury.org/history.php] [accessed 15 March 2008] notes: "At the West End of the Nave is the Font. The bucket shaped bowl itself is Norman with fine cable-work mouldings. The clustered pillars of the pedestal supporting it, however, are thirteenth-century. They resemble the Early English pillars of the North aisle; the same design is seen at the base of the Pulpit. The wooden font cover is of Jacobean style and craftsmanship dating from the early seventeenth century". There is no mention of any font in Pevsner (1958).

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Tony Ethridge, of Somerset Villages, for his photograph of this font

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 513289 5690956

Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.3697, -2.8091

Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 22′ 10.92″ N, 2° 48′ 32.76″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: bucket-shaped, mounted

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

LID INFORMATION

Date: 16th-17th century?

Material: wood

Apparatus: no

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

The National Gazetteer: a Topographical Dictionary of the British Isles, London: Virtue & Co., 1868, in [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Congresbury/index.html] [accessed 15 March 2008]
Betjeman, John, Collins Guide to Parish Churches of England and Wales (including The Isle of Man), St.Jame's Place, London: Collins, 1980, p. 85
Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 37, 147 and ill. on p. 310
Kelly, Eric Robert, Kelly's Directory of Somersetshire with the city of Bristol, London: Kelly & Co., 1883, p. 180
Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 362 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hYEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=hemyock+church+font&source=bl&ots=wV68KRXFhH&sig=_-CnLgSLeYKjq8YBQMsxSQrjbvA&hl=en&ei=1IKRSeTLOojKNO3c_YkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA161,M1] [accessed 10 February 2009]
Rutter, John, Delineations of the North Western Division of the County of Somerset, and of its [...], Shaftesbury; London: Published by the Author; Longman, Rees & Co. [...], 1829, p. 37
Rutter, John, The Westonian guide, intended as a visitor's companion to that favourite watering place, and its vicinity; including a descriptive account of Woodspring Priory and of Brockley Hall and Combe, Shaftesbury; London: [The author]; Longman, Rees & Co. [etc.], 1829, [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GqsHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=congresbury+church+font&source=web&ots=uslQlKp4uU&sig=01YTGZG6JTCjmnn9DvNys9Oqj48&hl=en#PPP7,M1] [accessed 15 March 2008]
Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 27, 79
Wade, G.H., Somerset, London: Methurn & Co., 1929, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12287/12287-h/12287-h.htm] [accessed 15 March 2008]