Elstow / Elnestou
Image copyright © Tim, 2012
CC-BY-SA-2.0
Results: 14 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Tim, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph 13 April 2012 by Tim [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/images/buildings/en/036/036697-41924-800.jpg] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
design element - motifs - floral - rosette - in a quatrefoil
Scene Description: on at least one of the panels of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Tim, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph 13 April 2012 by Tim [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/images/buildings/en/036/036697-41924-800.jpg] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
design element - motifs - floral - square flower - 16
Scene Description: one on each of the narrow panels of the underbowl, plus one other at each angle
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Tim, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph 13 April 2012 by Tim [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/images/buildings/en/036/036697-41924-800.jpg] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
design element - architectural - arch - trefoiled
Scene Description: two of them on one of the panels of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: Lysons (1806-1833)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of church exterior - north portal - tympanum
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 1990
Image Source: photograph taken in September 1990 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3263707] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - east view
![Source caption: "St Mary & Helena Parish Church, Elstow. The nave is part of the original Elstow Abbey and was extensively restored in 1880. The detached belfry, or 'steeple house, contains six bells. It dates back to the 13th century, although the upper section seen today, is a later 15th or 16th century construction. John Bunyan was a bell-ringer here" [and was baptised in its font]"](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1150919025_compressed.png)
Scene Description: Source caption: "St Mary & Helena Parish Church, Elstow. The nave is part of the original Elstow Abbey and was extensively restored in 1880. The detached belfry, or 'steeple house, contains six bells. It dates back to the 13th century, although the upper section seen today, is a later 15th or 16th century construction. John Bunyan was a bell-ringer here" [and was baptised in its font]"
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Robin Drayton, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 May 2008 by Robin Drayton [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/823352] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior in context
Scene Description: Source caption: "Elstow Abbey and Hillersden Mansion. As seen across the field from Wilstead Road." [NB: the distance between the tower, sen here on the right, and the body of the church is actually about 70ft."
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © M J Richardson, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 April 2010 by M J Richardson [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1838644] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church interior - nave - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 1990
Image Source: photograph taken in September 1990 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3263711] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
human figure?
Scene Description: a 'protome' like figure; not clear whether the rest of the body is hidden behind or not
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Tim, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph 13 April 2012 by Tim [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/images/buildings/en/036/036697-41924-800.jpg] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
human figure - head - 2
Scene Description: one seen here on the right: a hooded human head
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Tim, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph 13 April 2012 by Tim [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/images/buildings/en/036/036697-41924-800.jpg] [accessed 17 September 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
human figure - head - grotesque or fantastic - in a quatrefoil
Scene Description: a "Greenman"?
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: Lysons (1806-1833)
Copyright Instructions: PD
animal - mammal - quadruped
Scene Description: there appear to be one on the left, and part of another on the right of the image, but one of them could be human
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: Lysons (1806-1833)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Brittain, [s.d.] [ca. 1950?]
Image Source: photograph in Brittain ([s.d.] [ca. 1950?])
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of church exterior - north portal
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Brittain, [s.d.] [ca. 1950?]
Image Source: photograph in Brittain ([s.d.] [ca. 1950?])
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
Font ID: 01273ELS
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century, Perpendicular
Church / Chapel Name: Church of St. Mary and St. Helena
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the N aisle
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin & St. Helena
Church Notes: formerly part of abbey church (Benedictine nunnery) founded c.1078
Church Address: 210 Church End, Elstow, Bedford Borough MK42 9XT
Site Location: Bedfordshire, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located just E of the junction A6-A421, to the S of Bedford
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St. Albans
Historical Region: Hundred of Redbornestoke
Additional Comments: famous person font: John Bunyan [author of 'The Pilgrim's Progress'] was baptised in this font on 30 November 1628 ('Life of John Bunyan', by Edmund Venables (Walter Scott ed. of 1888: p. 1], in e-text ed. at www.gracenotes.info -- disappeared font? (the font of the 12thC church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for Elstow [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL0547/elstow/] [accessed 17 September 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Lysons (1806-1833) include an illustration of this font, but the font itself iis not mentioned in the text among other Bedforshire fonts; the three visible sides of the octagonal basin appear decorated with 1)two blind trefoil arches, 2)grotesque head or mask in a quatrefoil window, 3)rosette in a quatrefoil window; the first (upper) level of the chamfered underbowl has a square flower on each side; the stem of the base is plain but for a thin moulding at each end; at the lower base is at least one animal, a quadruped.; plain square lower base [Pevsner (1968) describes the elements of the base thus: "an animal, two heads and a human figure (?)"]. Noted in Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire (1898) as a baptismal font in the Perpendicular style. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the early Perpendicular period. The Victoria County History (Bedford, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The church was begun early in the 12th century, and three bays of the 12th-century nave remain [...] The font, which dates from the 15th century, is at the west end of the south aisle; it is octagonal with traceried panels, standing on an octagonal pedestal, at the foot of which are grotesque heads. The font has one plain side, having formerly stood against a wall." Noted and illustrated in Brittain ([s.d.]). [NB: the VCH (ibid.) further notes the cruciform monastic church here, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of Elstow].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library for access to the copy of Lysons’ Magna Britannia, and to Jim Ingram, of the Preservation Services, Robarts Library, for the digital imaging of Lysons’ illustrations.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 673271 5776844
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 52.11495, -0.46935
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 52° 6′ 53.82″ N, 0° 28′ 9.66″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, type unknown
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
LID INFORMATION
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: octagonal with a knob finial
REFERENCES
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Brittain, Vera, In the steps of John Bunyan: an excursion into Puritan England, London: Rich and Cowan, [s.d.] [ca. 1950?], p. 7, 49, 52, 281 and plates opp. pp. 44, 45, 68
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 186
- Kelly, Kelly's Directory for Bedfordshire, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd., 1898, [unknown]
- Lysons, Daniel, Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain, London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806-1822, vol. I: pl. opp. p. 31
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968, p. 84