St. Clether / Saint Clether

INFORMATION

FontID: 01486CLE
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Clederus
Church Patron Saints: St. Clether [aka Clarus, Claerius, Clederus, Clether, Cleer, Cletherus]
Church Location: St Clether, Plymouth PL15 8QJ, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1566 880081
Country Name: England
Location: Cornwall, South West
Directions to Site: Located off (S) of the A395, 12-13 km W of Launceston, just NW of Altarnun
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 11th - 12th century, Norman
Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. But Cox (1912) notes: "Plain circular bowl of early Norm[an] font remains, but base modern." [NB: Cox may refer to the lower base, which is square and of a different stone; the round stem appears to match the basin]. Noted in Pevsner (1970) "The Font is most elementary Norman." Illustrated in A Snap in Time [http://www.caerkief.co.uk/Churches/Clether_St.html] [accessed 13 November 2009]. The font consists of a roughly hemispherical basin decorated with a single groove line around its upper side, raised on a moulded round pedestal stem and a modern square base. [NB: there is a holy well located just northwest of the church]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.631421, -4.539057
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 37′ 53.12″ N, 4° 32′ 20.6″ W
UTM: 30U 391154 5609969

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, granite
Font Shape: hemispheric (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
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970