Ditchingham / Pirenhou / Pirnho / Pirnhow

CC-BY-SA-3.0

Results: 13 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - column

Scene Description: engaged columns around the stem

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012997] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

design element - motifs - floral

Scene Description: varied; one on each side of the underbowl, between the heads

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012997] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

design element - motifs - floral - rosette - in a quatrefoil - 4

Scene Description: on alternate sides of the octagonal basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012997] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

design element - motifs - quatrefoil

Scene Description: A row of four on each of the eight sides of the upper step of the plinth

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012997] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

head - 8

Scene Description: one at each angle of the underbowl; some human, others animal or grotesque

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012997] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

symbol - shield - 4

Scene Description: on alternate sides of the octagonal basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012997] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church exterior - southwest end

Scene Description: Photo caption: ""Tall, unusually opulent Perpendicular west tower.""

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 11 September 1994 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/D/Ditchingham St Mary's church from SW [7159] 1994-09-11.jpg] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church exterior - tower - south side - detail

Scene Description: Photo caption: "Base frieze with shields alternating with hearts surrounded by the crown of thorns"

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 11 September 1994 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/D/Ditchingham St Mary's church tower base S [7160] 1994-09-11.jpg] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Scene Description: the chancel screen viewd from the west

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012967] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Scene Description: the chancel screen viewd from the east; through it, the font is visible at the west end

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012974] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font

Image Source: engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 July 2010 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2012997] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: at the west end of the nave

Image Source: digital photograph January 2005 taken by Simon Knott [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/ditchingham/ditchingham.htm] [accessed 3 March 2014]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 01660DIT

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: Ditchingham, Norfolk NR35 2JS

Country Name: England

Location: Norfolk, East Anglia

Directions to Site: Located 24 kms E of Lowestoft, just off the A143

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Norwich

Historical Region: Hundred of Loddon

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, W end of the nave

Century and Period: 14th - 15th century, Late Decorated? / Early Perpendicular?

Workshop/Group/Artisan: heraldic font

Cognate Fonts: [cf. FontNotes]

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Simon Knott, of Norfolk Churches [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk], for his photograph of this church; we are also grateful to Jonathan Plunkett for the photographs of this church, taken by his father, George Plunkett, in September 1994

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Ditchingham in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TM3292/ditchingham/] [accessed 3 March 2014], bit it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. The entry for Ditchingham St. Mary's appears under Pirnhow in Blomefield (1805-1810): "The church is dedicated to St. Mary. In the reign of Edw. I. Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk was patron, as capital lord of Ditchingham". Blomefield (ibid.) esplains: "The town of Pirnho has been demolished time immemorial, the lands belonging to it lie now in Ditchingham, and Pirnhow-Hall is therein." [NB: Pirnhow has an entry [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TM3391/pirnhow/] [accessed 3 March 2014], but there is no mention of a church or cleric in it]. The present font here is described and illustrated in Paley (1844): octagonal basin mounted on a column cluster base, "it is a late specimen of Decorated work, and remains in good preservation, except the heads at the angles". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907). Described in Pevsner & Wilson (1999). Illustrated in context in Knott (2005). The basin sides are ornamented with a shield on every other side; the remaining sides have a rosette in a quatrefoil window. The first step of the octagonal plinth has quatrefoil motifs, four to each side; the lower step of the plinth is plain. The Ecclesiologist (vol. 9, 1849: 12) reports a modern version of this font at the Church of St. Mary, in Hamilton, Lanarkshire.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.477965, 1.429214

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 28′ 40.67″ N, 1° 25′ 45.17″ E

UTM: 31U 393320 5815361

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

Diameter (inside rim): 50 cm*

Basin Depth: 32.5 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 100 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * Paley (1844, unpaged)

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern

Material: wood, oak?

Apparatus: no

Notes: octagonal and flat, with carved top surface; metal ring handle

REFERENCES

Blomefield, Francis, An essay towards a topographical history of Norfolk, 1805-1810

Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907

Knott, Simon, The Norfolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 2004. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon (February 2005]. Accessed: 2009-07-24 00:00:00. URL: www.norfolkchurches.co.uk.

Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Norfolk 2: North-West and South (2nd ed.), London: Penguin, 1999