Sparsholt nr. Wantage / Spersolt
Image copyright © John Ward, 2009
Standing permission
Results: 6 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Ward, 2009
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 19 February 2009 by John Ward [http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshirechurches/3293644732/] [accessed 1 May 2009]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Ward, 2009
Image Source: digital photograph taken 19 February 2009 by John Ward [http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshirechurches/3293644732/] [accessed 1 May 2009]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - north view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2004
Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 April 2004 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/331092] [accessed 27 May 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church interior - nave - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2004
Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 April 2004 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/331093] [accessed 27 May 2015]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Ward, 2009
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 19 February 2009 by John Ward [http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshirechurches/3293644732/] [accessed 1 May 2009]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font
Scene Description: showing the over-the-top lead lining
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Corpus of Romaneque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 2015
Image Source: B&W photograph by Ron Baxter, in the CRSBI [www.crsbi.ac.uk/site/1049/] [accessed 27 May 2015]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
Font ID: 01302SPA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Late Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of the Holy Rood / Holy Cross
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, NW corner of the nave [CRSBI 28 August 1991]
Church Patron Saint(s): The Holy Cross
Church Address: Church Way, Sparsholt, Oxfordshire, OX12 9PU
Site Location: Oxfordshire, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B4507, 6 km W of Wantage
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Historical Region: formerly Berkshire -- Hundred of Wantage
Additional Comments: altered font? (the present one appears re-tooled) -- disappeared font? (the one from the pre-Conquest church here?)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are four entries for this Sparsholt [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU3487/sparsholt/] [accessed 27 May 2015], one of which mentions a church and one hide of church lands in it; this part of Sparsholt had been in the lordship of Edred the priest (and three "free men") in 1066, who, interestingly, appears to have retained the lordship albeit shared with King William in 1086. A font here is described in 'Church notes...' (1887) in the context of some "notes [that] were taken between 1835 and 1840": "The font rude Norman." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period [cf. Index entry for Sparsholt No. 1 for a font from the Saxon period (?)]. Described and illustrated in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland: "Plain, bucket shaped on modern inverted bucket shaped column of three courses. Surface retooled. Irregular horizontal break around bowl. Lead lined." The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 4, 1924) notes: "There was a church at Sparsholt before the Conquest. It was situated on the king's demesne land, and was held both of Edward the Confessor and William I by Edred the priest. [...] The font has a plain cylindrical bowl of the 12th or 13th century". Described in David Nash Ford (2001) [www.brkshirehistory.com/churches/sparsholt.html] [accessed 31 April 2004]: "A Norman replacement was built in the late 12th century" [NB: a replacement of the older font from "the old wooden Saxon Church which once stood in the same site" (ibid.) -- we have no information on the font of the pre-Conquest church].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Ward, of Oxfordshire Churches [http://homepage.mac.com/john.ward/oxfordshirechurches], for his photograph of this font
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 603842 5716030
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.585746, -1.501137
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 35′ 8.69″ N, 1° 30′ 4.09″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, type unknown
Font Shape: bucket-shaped, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Drainage Notes: lead-lined
Rim Thickness: 10 cm [calculated]
Diameter (inside rim): 54 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 74 cm*
Basin Total Height: 53 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * CRSBI (2015)
LID INFORMATION
Date: Modern?
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: conical, with metal finial
REFERENCES
- "Church notes, chiefly in Berks, Wilts, and Oxford, with a few in Somerset and Gloucestershire", 44, Archaeological Journal, 1887, pp. 43-50; 185-193; 291-303; 397-402; p. 301
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 186