St. Stephen-in-Brannel / Eglosstefan yn Branel / Saint Stephen in Brannel

Results: 14 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B01: animal - mammal - feline - passant-gardant - 2 - with fleur-de-lis and other floral motifs

Scene Description: facing each other; the identification of the animals as 'felines' is vague, as they are playful cartoon-like animals

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

B02: animal - mammal - lion - passant

Scene Description: facing right; unlike the previous felines, this looks quite ferocious

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

B03: symbol - tree - Tree of life

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

B04: symbol - tree - Tree of life

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

BH01: human figure - male - crowned - with mustache

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

BH02: human figure - male - crowned

Scene Description: no arms

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

BH03: human figure - male - crowned - wearing frilly cap - smiling - hands together in front

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

BH04: human figure - male - bearded - crowned - wearing frilly cap - smiling

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

design element - motifs - floral and foliage

Scene Description: a fleur-de-lys and several other vegetal motifs seen here below the playful felines

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

view of church exterior - north view - detail

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

view of font

Scene Description: notice the vessel with chaecoal at the foot of the font [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

view of font and cover

Scene Description: notice the vessel with chaecoal at the foot of the font [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

view of stoup?

Scene Description: it could be a farm or domestic vessel brought into the church to be used as a stoup

Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI

INFORMATION

FontID: 01461STE

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Stephen

Church Patron Saints: St. Stephen

Church Location: Fore Street, St Stephen, Truro PL26 7NN, UK -- Tel.: (01726) 822236

Country Name: England

Location: Cornwall, South West

Directions to Site: Located off the A3058, about 10 kms N-E of Truro, not far from Roche and Bodmin.

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Truro

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave

Century and Period: 13th - 15th century, Medieval

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Cornish font, Bodmin group

Cognate Fonts: Similar fonts at Maker, Bodmin and Roche, all in Cornwall

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Bond (1908) refers to the material of which this font is made as "porcelain stone", but it looks like a fine-grain granite, with date in the 15th century. Cox (1907) calls it a Norman font of exceptional design, the bowl richly ornamented on the same plan as the Bodmin and Maker fonts. Listed in Cox (1912) as Norman, one of a group "of characteristically Cornish design". Pevsner (1970) writes: "Font. Late Norman, on five supports with C13-looking bases, the bowl with demi-figures at the corners (two with arms, two bearded), and between them trees of life, two facing animals, etc. (Bodmin type)." Tisdall (1998) mentions two images, possibly leopards (?), one on the attack, the other with two cheerfully playing leopards or lions, on the font at St Stephen in Brannel, Cornwall. The tails of the leopards are shaped like crescent moons; the underbowl has vegetal motifs. On-site notes: baptismal font consisting of a hemispheric basin suspended on four corner shafts and central rest, of the Bodmin type; the corner shafts are topped by demi-figures; two adjacent sides of the basin have Tree-of-life motif ornamentation; the other two adjacent sides have lions; at the time of our visit there was an old stone mortar (?) full of charcoal under the font but no explanation as to its use or meaning there [NB: Bond has made some references to these extraneous objects brought into the church by mistake]. The flat wooden lid with metal reinforcements appears relatively modern, probably Victorian.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.343143, -4.889386

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 20′ 35.32″ N, 4° 53′ 21.79″ W

UTM: 30U 365564 5578491

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, granite?

Font Shape: hemispheric (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: not lined

Rim Thickness: 11 cm (23 at the corners)

Diameter (inside rim): 61 cm

Diameter (includes rim): 83 cm

Basin Depth: 23 cm

Basin Total Height: 51 cm

Height of Base: 47 cm

Height of Central Column: 33 cm

Height of Side Columns: 44-46 cm

Font Height (less Plinth): 98 cm

Font Height (with Plinth): 111 cm

Trapezoidal Basin: 80 x 80 cm at the corner heads

Notes on Measurements: BSI on-site

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

REFERENCES

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

Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part IX", 54, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1922, pp. 216-223; r["References"]

Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912

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

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970

Tisdall, M. W., God's beasts: identify and understand animals in church carvings, England: Charlesfort Press, 1998?