Skipton / Sciptone / Skipton-in-Craven
Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022
Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 December 2022)
Results: 9 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022
Image Source: digital photograph 6 August 2022 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 December 2022)
view of font and cover in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2009
Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 May 2009 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Bond (1908: 309)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of church exterior - south view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022
Image Source: digital photograph 6 August 2022 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 December 2022)
view of font in context - west side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022
Image Source: digital photograph 6 August 2022 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 December 2022)
view of church interior - detail
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022
Image Source: digital photograph 6 August 2022 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 December 2022)
view of church interior - window
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022
Image Source: digital photograph 6 August 2022 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 December 2022)
view of font and cover in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Alexander P Kapp, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Alexander P. Kapp [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/620606] [accessed 19 November 2008]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022
Image Source: digital photograph 6 August 2022 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 December 2022)
INFORMATION
Font ID: 02033SKI
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century, Perpendicular
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of the Holy Trinity
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave [cf. FontNotes below]
Church Patron Saint(s): The Holy Trinity
Church Notes: first church here probably 12thC, in wood; present church ca. 1300; much modified since
Church Address: 1A Mill Bridge, Skipton BD23 1NJ, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1756 793622
Site Location: West Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the Humber, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B6265-A6131 crossroads, about 40 km NW of Leeds up the A660
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Leeds
Historical Region: Hundred of Craven [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: disappeared font? (the one from the medieval church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is a multiple-place entry that includes Skipton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SD9851/skipton/] [accessed 18 December 2022]; no mentions of cleric or church in it. A font here is noted in Glynne's August 1846 visit to this church, in Butler (2007): "The font has a large plain octagonal bowl chamfered below, on an octagonal stem and step; the cover of wood, Jacobean, lofty and hung from the roof" [i.e., ceiling?] Lewis' Directory of 1848 reports a "curiously sculptured" font in this church. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Described and ilustrated in Bond (1908) as a "Jacobean font", although the reference is really to the font cover, a grand three-volume octagonal affair; the two lower volumes are octagonal, the lower slightly wider than the next volume, and ornamented with windows of several typesd; the third and upper volume is pyramidal with cusped arrises and a round finial; it appears to work on a counterweight system. From the illustration shown in Bond, the Skipton font appears to have a plain bowl with a prominent upper rim and cut-away underbowl. The plainliness would match Morris' (1932) description: "Very plain font -- possibly Trans[itional]. Above is a Jacobean cover" [NB: Morris may refer to the "Transition" from the Decorated to the Perpendicular periods]. Mee (1941) notes: "The 12th century font has a fine Jacobean cover like a rich tower and spire." Betjeman (1958) too mentions the "Jacobean font cover". So does Pevsner (1986 c1967): "Font cover. A very fine Jacobean piece, octagonal, of two tiers with crocketed spire. The lower tier has openwork tracery decoration, the upper foliage." The 'Notes...' from Mrs. Hawthorne (1871: 8-14) corresponding to April 10, locate "a very old stone stone font" in "an Inner court od Skipton Castle, in the centre of which the great ancient yew-tree stands". The font cover is illustrated in James (1985). [NB: Glynne (in Butler, 2007), mentions a 'benetura' near the closed north door; Butler (ibid.) in his annotation of Glynne, notes that "the stoup was further uncovered in the 1909 restoration", but neither author gives an indication of its date]. The entry for this church in Historic England mentions the font cover but not the font itself [Listing NGR: SD9903951914]: "C14 and C15, repaired by Ann Clifford after the siege of Skipton in the Civil War [...] Jacobean font-cover".
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Smith for his photographs of this church and font
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 564550 5979887
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 53.9633, -2.0161
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 53° 57′ 47.88″ N, 2° 0′ 57.96″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, type unknown
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
LID INFORMATION
Date: Jacobean / Early 17th cent.
Material: wood
Apparatus: yes; counterweight
Notes: Tall Jacobean style cover made of two large octagonal parts and a pointed top; very ornate with lattice motif, rosettes, windows, etc. [cf. FontNotes]
REFERENCES
- Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958, p. 441
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 289 and ill. on p. 309
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 231
- Glynne, Stephen Richard, The Yorkshire notes of Sir Stephen Glynne (1825-1874), Woodbridge: The Boydell Press; Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 2007, p. 380
- Hawthorne, Mrs., Notes in England and Italy, New York: Putnam & Sons, 1871, p. 8-14
- Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831, [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51281] [accessed 1 March 2007]
- Mee, Arthur, The King's England, Yorkshire, West Riding, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1941, p. 368
- Mehling, Franz N., Great Britain and Ireland: a Phaidon Cultural Guide, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985, p. 554 and ill. on p. 555
- Morris, Joseph Ernest, The West Riding of Yorkshire, London: Methuen & Co., 1932, p. 476
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Yorkshire: the West Riding, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1986 c1967, p. 44, 486