Bletsoe / Blachesou / Blechesham / Blechesho / Bletnesho

Standing permission

Results: 8 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - trefoiled arches - 8

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken August 2006 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - floral - rosette

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken August 2006 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs and/or symbols - unidentified

Scene Description: on the chamfer: either damaged or unfinished [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken August 2006 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

symbol - shield - in a trefoil - 8

Scene Description: in the panels of the stem

Image Source: digital photograph taken August 2006 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin - interior

Image Source: digital photograph taken August 2006 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - northeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 September 2013 by Arcusiridis [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Mary's_church,_Bletsoe.JPG] [accessed 10 September 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken August 2006 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken August 2006 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 01265BLE

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: 64 The Avenue, Bletsoe, Bedford Borough MK44 1QQ

Country Name: England

Location: Bedfordshire, East

Directions to Site: Located just E of the A6, 11 km NW of Bedford

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St. Albans

Historical Region: Hundred of Buckelowe [in Domesday] -- Hundred of Willey

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, S side, just W of the entrance

Century and Period: 15th century, Perpendicular

Workshop/Group/Artisan: heraldic font

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Hinson, of www.yorkshireCDbooks.com, for the photographs of chuch and font.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There are two entries for Bletsoe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL0258/bletsoe/] [accessed 10 September 2015], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. The Victoria County History (Bedfordshire, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "This church has been very largely restored, both in the middle of the 19th century and in recent years; it is of a curiously irregular plan, and, though showing no details older than the 14th century, is probably of considerably earlier origin. [...] The first mention that has been found of the advowson of the church of St. Mary, Bletsoe, is in 1219 [...] The font is good 15th-century work, octagonal with arcaded bowl and panelled shaft, in each face of which is a blank shield." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Pevsner (1968) notes: "Font. Perp[endicular], octagonal, with arched panels." The font consists of an octagonal basin with a moulded upper rim decorated with rosettes, below wich are trefoil traceried panels; there appears to be a diagonal repaired crack right through the sides of the bowl, and part of the upper rim is missing; the underbowl appears to have some carving on some of the sides [angels, perhaps?] but some of the panels of the chamfer are either unfinished or badly damaged, probably the latter; the sides of the octagonal stem have plain shields inside trefoil windows; the lower base is octagonal and plain, with a chamfered top. The wooden cover is octagonal and flat and has a know handle; it appears modern. The whole is raised on a narrow octagonal plinth with kneeling stone.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.212531, -0.504164

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 12′ 45.11″ N, 0° 30′ 14.99″ W

UTM: 30U 670515 5787613

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

Drainage Notes: lead lining

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2011-09-13 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968