Saltash No. 1 / Essa

Results: 1 records

INFORMATION

Font ID: 01515SAL
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 14th century, Norman? / Decorated?
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church [former chapel] of St. Nicholas & St. Faith
Font Location in Church: Inside the church/chapel
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra & St. Faith
Church Notes: A former chapel, it was, according to Cox (1912), "formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1881"
Church Address: Saltash PL12 6JX, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1752 844456
Site Location: Cornwall, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on the A38, 10-11 km W of Plymouth
Additional Comments: re-cycled mortar or other domestic vessel?
Font Notes:
Noted in 'On the ancient fonts of Cornwall' (1851) as a "sadly mutilated" font of ca. 1085. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) and in Cox (1912) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period, although Cox (ibid.) appears to contradict himself later in the same source: "Font, like a big stoup with 4 projecting ribs, is said to have originally stood in ancient chapel of Wadgworthy in this parish, and was placed here in 1870. It is, however, highly improbable that the chapel had baptismal rights, and we believe it to have been a domestic vessel." Pevsner (1970) writes: "Font. Probably Norman, of an unsusual vague shape, with corner ribs and a centre rib on each side; possibly of domestic origin." The town's website [http://www.saltashcornwall.co.uk/page4628.html] [accessed 23 November 2009] states that the font used to be a domestic mortar. [NB: the building is said to date from ca. 1120]. [cf. Indes entry for Saltash No. 2 for a medieval (?) stoup in the same church]

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 414070 5584717
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.4082, -4.2093
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 24′ 29.52″ N, 4° 12′ 33.48″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

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

REFERENCES

  • "On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall: a communication", 83 (April 1851) / New Series no. 47, Ecclesiologist, 1851, pp. 96-102; p. 97
  • Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912, p. 18, 210
  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 193