St. Merryn / Saint Merryn / St. Merran / St. Meryn

Image copyright © Trinity Access to Research Archive, 2009

Reproduced here under the provisions in the Tara Kelly licence [http://www.tara.tcd.ie/retrieve/34205/license.txt] [accessed 19 November 2009]

Results: 7 records

B01: design element - architectural - arcade - trefoiled arches - 12

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Trinity Access to Research Archive, 2009

Image Source: detail of a B&W photograph by Edwin Rae, in the TRIARC Edwin Rae Collection [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/14565] ((handwritten on back of image): St. Merryn, Cornwall: Church of St. Merryn: Font from West (Clayton 7147))

Copyright Instructions: Reproduced here under the provisions in the Tara Kelly licence [http://www.tara.tcd.ie/retrieve/34205/license.txt] [accessed 19 November 2009]

B02: Apostle or saint - Apostles - 12 - 1 per niche

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Trinity Access to Research Archive, 2009

Image Source: detail of a B&W photograph by Edwin Rae, in the TRIARC Edwin Rae Collection [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/14565] ((handwritten on back of image): St. Merryn, Cornwall: Church of St. Merryn: Font from West (Clayton 7147))

Copyright Instructions: Reproduced here under the provisions in the Tara Kelly licence [http://www.tara.tcd.ie/retrieve/34205/license.txt] [accessed 19 November 2009]

B03: angel - demi-figure - holding shield - blank - 4

Scene Description: at the angles of the basin, forming the capitals for the outer support columns

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Trinity Access to Research Archive, 2009

Image Source: detail of a B&W photograph by Edwin Rae, in the TRIARC Edwin Rae Collection [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/14565] ((handwritten on back of image): St. Merryn, Cornwall: Church of St. Merryn: Font from West (Clayton 7147))

Copyright Instructions: Reproduced here under the provisions in the Tara Kelly licence [http://www.tara.tcd.ie/retrieve/34205/license.txt] [accessed 19 November 2009]

BU01: design element - motifs - floral

Scene Description: in two rows around the underbowl

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Trinity Access to Research Archive, 2009

Image Source: detail of a B&W photograph by Edwin Rae, in the TRIARC Edwin Rae Collection [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/14565] ((handwritten on back of image): St. Merryn, Cornwall: Church of St. Merryn: Font from West (Clayton 7147))

Copyright Instructions: Reproduced here under the provisions in the Tara Kelly licence [http://www.tara.tcd.ie/retrieve/34205/license.txt] [accessed 19 November 2009]

LB01: design element - motifs - moulding

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Trinity Access to Research Archive, 2009

Image Source: B&W photograph by Edwin Rae, in the TRIARC Edwin Rae Collection [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/14565] ((handwritten on back of image): St. Merryn, Cornwall: Church of St. Merryn: Font from West (Clayton 7147))

Copyright Instructions: Reproduced here under the provisions in the Tara Kelly licence [http://www.tara.tcd.ie/retrieve/34205/license.txt] [accessed 19 November 2009]

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Trinity Access to Research Archive, 2009

Image Source: B&W photograph by Edwin Rae, in the TRIARC Edwin Rae Collection [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/14565] ((handwritten on back of image): St. Merryn, Cornwall: Church of St. Merryn: Font from West (Clayton 7147))

Copyright Instructions: Reproduced here under the provisions in the Tara Kelly licence [http://www.tara.tcd.ie/retrieve/34205/license.txt] [accessed 19 November 2009]

view of font in context

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Steve Beazeley, 2002

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 December 2002 by Steve Beazley [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cornwallpics/stmerryn/pages/Font.htm] [accessed 19 November 2002]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 01463MER
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Marina (or St. Merryn)
Church Patron Saints: St. Merryn [aka Marina, Merran, Merryn]
Church Location: St Merryn, Church, Padstow PL28 8ND, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1841 534898
Country Name: England
Location: Cornwall, South West
Directions to Site: Located on the B3276, just W of Padstow [NB: the ruins of St Constantine's church are located about 2 km SW of St Merryn]
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 12th - 13th century / 14th - 15th century, Medieval
Cognate Fonts: The font at Padstow, also in Cornwall
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Steve Beazeley for his photograph of this font
Noted in Lysons (1806-1833) as one of a group of Cornish fonts of similar shape as the original fonts of Bodmin, Roche, etc., “but evidently of a much later date [...]; of the Catacluse stone, have figures of the twelve apostles, carved in bas-relief, in Gothic niches, and four angels holding shields". Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports: "the font is curiously carved with figures of the Apostels, and originally belonged to the ruined church of St. Constantine, an ancient village [...] near Harlyn." 'On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall' (1851) notes: "the fonts in the churches of S. Petroc, Padstow ; and S. Merryn. They are precisely similar in every respect, and are constructed of a dark stone, called in the neighbourhood " Cataclense Stone." The bowl is round, having four projecting figures of the Evangelists, and between each of these three elegant trefoiled niches, containing the images of the Twelve Apostles in a very perfect state. The bottom of the bowl is moulded, and has four-leaved flowers in the hollows. It rests on a plain central shaft. Recently the angular shafts, which support the Evangelists, and had been removed, have been restored, but not altogether satisfactorily." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a beautiful example of Early English font made from the local Catacleuse stone (a dark stone of exceeding durability). "It rests on a circular shaft and on four small octagonal pillars, with shield-bearing angels as their capitals; figures, apparently intended for the Apostles, occupy niches round the bowl. This font was brought here [i.e., St. Merryn] about fifty years ago [i.e., ca. 1857?] from the ruined small church of St. Constantine". Noted and illustrated in Cox (1912): "Beautiful early I5th cent, font, with the 12 Apostles round bowl, is of same stone. It closely resembles that of Padstow, and was brought here from neighbouring ruined church of St. Constantine, when old Norm, font was transferred to Maker." Cox (ibid.) describes the stone as "dark Catacleuse stone, sometimes mistaken for Purbeck". Illustrated in the Trinity Access Research Archive [http://hdl.handle.net/2262/14565] accessed 19 November 2009] [NB: the former St. Merry font was removed at the same time to Maker]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.5289, -4.983
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 31′ 44.04″ N, 4° 58′ 58.8″ W
UTM: 30U 359455 5599317

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, Catacleuse stone
Font Shape: round (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round

REFERENCES

Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831
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
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970