Elsing / Ausing / Helsinga

Results: 12 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - window - cinquefoiled

Scene Description: over the niches that house the figures of the cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken April 2006 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/elsing/elsing.htm] [accessed 28 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - roll moulding

Scene Description: at the top and bottom of the underbowl chamfer

Image Source: digital photograph taken April 2006 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/elsing/elsing.htm] [accessed 28 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - trefoil

Scene Description: a band around the sides of the basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken April 2006 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/elsing/elsing.htm] [accessed 28 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - patterns - tracery

Scene Description: all over the cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken April 2006 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/elsing/elsing.htm] [accessed 28 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

human figure - standing

Scene Description: several, probably Apostles or saints, in the niches of the cove

Image Source: digital photograph taken April 2006 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/elsing/elsing.htm] [accessed 28 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - north view

Image Source: digital photograph taken April 2006 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/elsing/elsing.htm] [accessed 28 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 17 October 1993 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/E/Elsing St Mary's church from SE [7083] 1993-10-17.jpg] [accessed 2 October 2013]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font

Image Source: engraving in Repton (1812)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover

Image Source: B&W photograph in Cautley (1949: 138)

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission received from the publisher

view of font and cover

Image Source: engraving by J. Basire, in Repton (1812)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken April 2006 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/elsing/elsing.htm] [accessed 28 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font cover

Image Source: engraving in Repton (1812)

Copyright Instructions: PD

INFORMATION

FontID: 01698ELS

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

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: Church Street, Elsing, Norfolk, NR20 3EA

Country Name: England

Location: Norfolk, East Anglia

Directions to Site: Located 10 km EEN of East Dereham, about 20 km WNW of Norwich

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Norwich

Historical Region: Hundred of Eynford

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave, just E of the tower arch

Date: ca. 1340?

Century and Period: 14th century (mid?), Decorated

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Simon Knott, www.norfolkchurches.co.uk, for his photographs of this church and font; we are also gratefult to Jonathan Plunkett for the photograph of this church taken by his father, George Plunkett, in October 1993

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

The Domesday entry for "Helsinga", transcribed and translated in Blomefield (1805-1810), reports "a church endowed with 18 acres of land, and one of meadow" in it". Blomefield (ibid.) further notes the first recorded rector "In 1328, Master Richard de Shropham, instituted, presented by Lady Margery de Foliot" and notes that the church was a rectory but fails to give the dedication at the time; that early church was later replaced: "Sir Hugh was son of Sir John de Hastings, Lord Abergavonny, [...] this Sir Hugh built the church of Elsing, and was there buried in 1347, as was his lady in 1349." The church was, at Blomefield's time, "covered with lead and the chancel with tiles. In the tower, which is four square, are 5 bells." The present font here, which can safely be dated to the building of Sir Hughes' church, is described and illustrated with an engraving by J. Basire in Repton (1812) as a font "probably executed from about the reign of King Edward the Second to that of Richard the Second" [i.e., 1307-1377+]; Repton (ibid.) adds that "the font at Elsing may, perhaps, be considered as one of the earliest specimens of the oak canopy; the small pinnacles are here introduced as they were originally". The cover is noted in Paley (1844) as an exquisite example of "the lofty-spire canopies". Noted in Thomas (1846). Listed in Cox-Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period. Illustrated in Cautley (1949): octagonal mounted font ornamented with a band of foliage motif around the sides of the basin; tall plain underbowl chamfer framed with mouldings up and down; short octagonal pedestal base and lower base. Noteworthy wooden font cover ornamented with tracery, cinquefoil arches/windows and figures; dove (?) finial, with traces of gilding still remaining; described by Betjeman (1958) as "one of the finest font covers in Norfolk". Described in Pevsner & Wilson (1999), who writre also on the font cover: "Fine Perp[endicular] canopy with re-cut figures." Noted in Knott (2006): "Elsing's magnificent font cover, a riot of pinnacles and niches that climbs into the roof. It is mid-15th century, and sits on a font a century older, commissioned and placed in the rebuilt church of the 1340s, and as such also quite untypical of Norfolk and Suffolk." The font-cover is noted in Howard & Crossley (1919). [NB: we have no information on the font of the original church here].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.7076, 1.0355

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 42′ 27.36″ N, 1° 2′ 7.8″ E

UTM: 31U 367280 5841555

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Date: 16th-17th cent.?

Material: wood, oak?

Notes: traces of gilding still on it, according to Davies (1962)

REFERENCES

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

Cautley, Henry Munro, Norfolk Churches, Ipswich: Norman Adlard & Co., 1949

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

Davies, J.G., The Architectural Setting of Baptism, London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962

Howard, F.E., English Church Woodwork: a Study in Craftmanship during the Mediaeval period A.D. 1250-1550, London: B.T. Batsford, 1919

James, M. R., Suffolk and Norfolk, London, Toronto: Dent & Sons, 1930

Knott, Simon, The Norfolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 2004. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon (February 2005]. Accessed: 2009-07-28 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

Repton, John Adey, "Specimens of Fonts, collected from different Churches, by John Adey Repton, Esq. F.A.S. In a Letter addressed to Craven Ord, Esq. F.R.S. and F.A.S.V.P., read 12th March, 1807", XVI, Archaeologia, 1812, pp. 335-337 and pl. XXXVII-XLV; r["References"]

Thomas, Caddy, Sketches for an ecclesiology of the deaneries of Sparham and Taverham, in Norfolk; together with some summary details of Ingworth Deanery, in the same county, Norwich; London: Jarrold and Sons; Hamilton Adams and Co., 1846