Rochester No. 1 / Roucestre
Image copyright © [in the public domain]
PD
Results: 5 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a detail of an engraving in Archaeology (vol. XI, pl. XI)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font and inscription
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a detail of an engraving in Archaeology (vol. XI, pl. XI)
Copyright Instructions: PD
inscription
Scene Description: each panel of the octagonal basin houses a letter
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a detail of an engraving in Archaeology (vol. XI, pl. XI)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of church exterior in context - west view
Scene Description: Source caption: "Former St Nicholas church, Rochester. The building is no longer in use as a church, but was converted in the 1960s to be the Diocesan administrative office, and completely refurbished inside in 2007. It remains listed grade 1"
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Stephen Craven, 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 September 2013 by Stephen Craven [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3666925] [accessed 17 September 2019]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Society of Antiquaries of London, [s.d.]
Image Source: digital image of a drawing [ca.1800?] by Thomas Fisher in the Catalogue of Drawings & Museum Objects of the Society of Antiquaries of London [http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/specColl/SoA_images/detail.cfm?object=1512] [accessed 13 January 2008]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
Font ID: 01230ROC
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1639?
Font Century and Period/Style: 17th century, Post-Reformation
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Nicholas [redundant since 1960s]
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra
Church Notes: church completed 1423; partly demolished and re-built 1620; restored 1860s; restored and modified 1960s and 1970s; redundant; refurbished 2007
Church Address: Boley Hill, Rochester ME1 1SL, UK
Site Location: Kent, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (W) High St [aka A2 / A229], just NW of Chatham, on the SW shore of the mouth of the Medway river
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Rochester
Historical Region: Hundred of Rochester
Additional Comments: restored font / fenced font disused font -- letter of 1663 against the Puritans' fanaticism in FontNotes: MUST USE (disappeared font? (the one from the Domesday-time church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are three entries for Rochester [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ7468/rochester/] [accessed 17 September 2019] one of which reports a church in it. Noted in Paley (1844) as a a font with an inscription [after Archaeologia vol. IX (1792): 134]. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports "a very ancient stone font" in this church. Glynne (1877) visited this church on three occasions (1831, 1839, 1853) but mentions no font in this church. Listed in Romilly Allen (1888) as one of several "later fonts with inscriptions of a religious nature". Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) and Bond (1908) as an octagonal baptismal font; an inscription is broken letter by letter in the eight panels of the basin: C,R,I,S,T,I,A,N (the H did not fit in). Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as "an octagonal font with one letter on each of its sides forming as a whole the word CRISTIAN (the H being omitted to accommodate the word to the number of the sides)". There is an interesting letter dated 5 October 1663 from the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury to the then Bishop of Rochester, in which the D&C mention the praiseworthy restoration of a font donated by the Bishop in 1639 and having been "destroyed by the puritans". The letter goes on to praise "the pious and noble work of your Font's restoring" and the installation of a fence around the font, since, "without the addition of such a fence to prevent invaders will soon become the prey of the fanatick and sacrilegious rabble." Newman (1980) notes noly a Perpendicular font with a "concave-sided bowl" in Rochester St. Nicholas'
COORDINATES
UTM: 31U 326293 5696092
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.389444, 0.503333
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 23′ 22″ N, 0° 30′ 12″ E
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, type unknown
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
INSCRIPTION
Inscription Language: English
Inscription Location: A letter in each of the 8 panels
Inscription Text: "C.R.I.S.T.I.A.N"
Inscription Source: Cox (1907: 183); Bond (1985 c1908: 115); Tyrrell-Green (1928: 159)
REFERENCES
- Allen, J. Romilly, "On the Antiquity of Fonts in Great Britain", XLIV, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1888, pp. 164-173; p. 169 fn3
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 115
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 183
- 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, [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51241] [accessed 26 February 2007]
- Newman, John, West Kent and the Weald, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1980, p. 489
- Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 26 and fn
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 36, 159
- Woodruff, C. Eveleigh, "Some seventeenth century letters and petitions from the muniments of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury", 42 (1930), Archaeologia Cantiana, 1930, pp. 93-139; p. 123-124