St. Breward / S. Bruwerd / Saint Breward

INFORMATION

Font ID: 01484BRE
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 11th - 12th century [composite font] [reconstructed in 1864], Medieval / composite
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Breward
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Branwalader [aka Breward, Branwalator, Brelade, Brueredus]
Church Notes: One of several localities in Cornwall and Wales in which the church was built near a holy well. Tyrrell-Green (1928: 11) informs that "chapels were sometimes built either directly above holy wells or in such close proximity to them that a simple arrangement could be made for the water from the sacred spring to flow into a reservoir within the chapel. It is probable that these well-chapels were erected in the first instance to serve as baptisteries", which would account for the choice of this church site, as well as those at Callington, Llangibby, Mathern, St. Cleer near Liskeard and others.
Church Address: St Breward, Bodmin PL30 4PP, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1208 850088
Site Location: Cornwall, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located in the western side of the Bodmin Moor, 10 km N of Bodmin
Additional Comments: recycled font: reconstructed from surviving fragments / composite font
Font Notes:
Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Cox (1912), however, writes: "Curious looking font is a " make-up" of 1864; that which now serves as bowl is probably base of a Norm[an] font, whilst present base is the capital of a Norm[an] pier reversed." Noted in Pevsner (1970): "Font. Made up of Norman fragments." Noted and illustrated in A Snap in Time [http://www.caerkief.co.uk/Churches/Breward_St.html] [accessed 13 November 2009]. The odd-looking font looks like a stylised mushroom: the basin is round at the top and widens to a square; the base is circular at the top and square at the bottom, on which are two large scallops on the sides. Round wooden cover, flat.

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 380453 5602802
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.5649, -4.688
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 33′ 53.64″ N, 4° 41′ 16.8″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown
Font Shape: round-t0-square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round-to-square

LID INFORMATION

Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

  • Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912, p. 70
  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 193
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970, p. 161
  • Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 11