Bledlow / Bledelai / Bledelaw

PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

Results: 16 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - motifs - leaf

Scene Description: on the upper curving side of the lower base

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

design element - motifs - plant

Scene Description: stylised renditions of plants (?) inscribed in semi-circular niches, two on each side of the lower base

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

design element - motifs - rope moulding

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

design element - motifs - vine - acanthus

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 August 2007 by Phind [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aylesbury_font_bledlow.jpg]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

design element - patterns - fluted

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

view of base - detail

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

view of church exterior - churchyard, cemetery - cross - base

Scene Description: the Parish web site [http://www.bledlowparish.org.uk/Bledlow History.htm] [accessed 13 December 2016] notes: "The remains of a stone cross is 14th century or earlier. Churchyard crosses often preceded the building of a stone or flint place of worship, and thus marked out an early less substantial building as being a church. There is no evidence that these crosses were knocked down during the Reformation; the condition is more likely to be caused by exposure to the elements."

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2016 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from Colin Smith (e-mail of 12 December 2016)

view of church exterior - churchyard, cemetery - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2016 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from Colin Smith (e-mail of 12 December 2016)

view of church exterior - northwest view

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

view of church exterior - south view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 August 2007 by Phind [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aylesbury_font_bledlow.jpg]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2016 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from Colin Smith (e-mail of 12 December 2016)

view of church exterior - southwest view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2016 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from Colin Smith (e-mail of 12 December 2016)

view of font

Image Source: B&W photograph in the RCAHM (Buckinghamshire, 1912).

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph in FLICKR by Martin Beek taken 29 May 2005 [www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos]

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

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 29 Oct 2007)

INFORMATION

FontID: 01337BED

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of the Holy Trinity [originally Holy Spirit]

Church Patron Saints: The Holy Trinity [originally ddicated to the Holy Spirit]

Church Location: Church End, Bledlow-cum-Saunderton, Buckinghamshire HP27 9PE

Country Name: England

Location: Buckinghamshire, South East

Directions to Site: Located off the B4009, 13 km S of Aylesbury

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford

Historical Region: Hundred of Risborough

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the S aisle, in the S chamber adjacent to the tower

Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Late Norman / Transitional?

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Aylesbury group

Cognate Fonts: Aylesbury, Great Kimble, Little Missenden, Risborough Priors, Weston Turville, etc.

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Smith for his photographs of the church exterior and the medieval cross base in the churchyard

Church Notes: the base of a medieval (?) stone cross is still found in the churchyard of this church in 2016 [cf. Images Area]

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Bledlow [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP7702/bledlow/] [accessed 23 September 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. A font here is noted in Parker (1850): "The font is round, escalloped [sic], N[orman]" [NB: Parker (ibid.) notes a "stoup, very deep and good, east side of porch door", but does not mention a date]. Sheahan (1862) notes: "The font is ancient: the basin, which is vase-shaped, is 8ft. 7in. in circumference, and has a broad band of foliage round its brim, and grooves vertically descending to the base, which rests on a square grade, ornamented with sculpture. This handsome font, together with several other good carvings in the church, have been much defaced by the profusion of whitewash that has been from time to time lavished upon them." Noted in Murray (1882): "a very fine cup-shaped font". Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a chalice-shaped font of the Norman period, "obviously done by the same workman or workmen" as the fonts at Great Kimble, Little Missenden and Risborough Priors. Listed in Bond (1908) as a Norman font. The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 2, 1908) notes: "The church of the Holy Spirit is mentioned in 1284, [...] and the same invocation appears in James Fresel's will in 1341, [...] but at the present day it has been changed to the church of the Holy Trinity. It was granted to the abbey of Grestein in Normandy in the time of Robert Count of Mortain.[i.e., 1031-1090] [...] There is evidence of the existence at the east end of the present north aisle of a late 12thcentury transept [...] The font is of late 12th-century date, of local type, with a circular scalloped bowl on a square base formed like an inverted cushion capital and ornamented with foliage in lunette panels, and the short stem is circular, with cable mouldings." Noted and illustrated in the RCAHM (Buckinghamshire, 1912) as "the earliest and crudest in workmanship" of the fonts of the Aylesbury group, and dated in the late-12th century. Described in Pevsner (1960): "Font. Norman, cup-shaped. The lower half fluted, a band of almond-shapes above filled with big leaf motifs. The base is like a recessed two-scallop capital with the lunettes decorated. Jenkins (1999) also identifies it as an Aylesbury font and comments: "This appealing style is ubiquitous in Buckinghamshire, its motifs inspired by workmen at St Albans Cathedral." [NB: the RCAHM (ibid.) reports also a holy-water stoup, in the northeast corner of the south porch: "plain, round bowl, probably 16th-century or of earlier date."]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.712248, -0.875346

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 42′ 44.09″ N, 0° 52′ 31.25″ W

UTM: 30U 646784 5731171

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: hemispheric (mounted) -- chalice-shaped

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Diameter (includes rim): 82 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * [calculated from a diameter of 8ft. 7in. Given in Sheahan (1862)]

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern?

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: round and flat, appears modern

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2015-09-23 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958

Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908

Clapham, Alfred William, English Romanesque Architecture after the Conquest, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934

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

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of the historical monuments in Buckinghamshire, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1912-

Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing]

Murray, John [the firm], Handbook for travellers in Berks. Bucks and Oxfordshire, including a [...], London: John Murray, 1882

Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England: Oxfordshire, Oxford, London: Published under the sanction of the Central Commitee of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland [by] John Henry Parker, 1850

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Buckinghamshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960

Sheahan, James Joseph, History and topography of Buckinghamshire, comprising a general survey of the county, preceded by an epitome of the early history of Great Britain, London; Pontefract: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts; William Edward Bonas [...], 1862