St. Stephen-in-Brannel / Eglosstefan yn Branel / Saint Stephen in Brannel
Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Results: 14 records
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
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
B02: animal - mammal - lion - passant
Scene Description: facing right; unlike the previous felines, this looks quite ferocious
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
B03: symbol - tree - Tree of life
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
B04: symbol - tree - Tree of life
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
BH01: human figure - male - crowned - with mustache
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
BH02: human figure - male - crowned
Scene Description: no arms
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
BH03: human figure - male - crowned - wearing frilly cap - smiling - hands together in front
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
BH04: human figure - male - bearded - crowned - wearing frilly cap - smiling
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
![notice the vessel with chaecoal at the foot of the font [cf. FontNotes]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/STE0005819_compressed.png)
Scene Description: notice the vessel with chaecoal at the foot of the font [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font and cover
![notice the vessel with chaecoal at the foot of the font [cf. FontNotes]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/STE0005413_compressed.png)
Scene Description: notice the vessel with chaecoal at the foot of the font [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - motifs - floral and foliage
Scene Description: a fleur-de-lys and several other vegetal motifs seen here below the playful felines
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church exterior - north view - detail
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of stoup?
Scene Description: it could be a farm or domestic vessel brought into the church to be used as a stoup
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 21 July 2000 by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
INFORMATION
Font ID: 01461STE
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Date Visited: 2000-07-21
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th - 15th century, Medieval
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Cornish font, Bodmin group
Cognate Fonts: Similar fonts at Maker, Bodmin and Roche, all in Cornwall
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Stephen
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Stephen
Church Address: Fore Street, St Stephen, Truro PL26 7NN, UK -- Tel.: (01726) 822236
Site Location: Cornwall, South West, England, United Kingdom
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 Notes:
Click to view
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
UTM: 30U 365564 5578491
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.343143, -4.889386
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 20′ 35.32″ N, 4° 53′ 21.79″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, granite?
Font Shape: hemispheric, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
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, p. 255
- 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; p. 217
- Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912, p. 17, 215
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 190-192
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970, p. 202
- Tisdall, M. W., God's beasts: identify and understand animals in church carvings, England: Charlesfort Press, 1998?, p. 187, ill. 375 and 376 on p. 188