Portchester / Porcestre / Porchester / Portcestre

Image copyright © http://www.norman-world.com/france/archeo/Angleterre/fonts/portfont.htm, 2003

PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

Results: 17 records

animal - fabulous animal or monster?

Scene Description: it appears to have two front legs but no back legs, perhaps a long twisring tail...

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Midnightblueowl, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 July 2011 by Midnightblueowl [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Serpentine_detail_on_church_font,_Portchester.JPG] [accessed 21 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

animal - reptile - snake - intertwined

Scene Description: described as "writhing snakes" in Bond; it appears to be a snake caught in vegetation interlace, forming part of it

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Midnightblueowl, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 July 2011 by Midnightblueowl [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Font_at_Portchester.JPG] [accessed 21 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - intersecting arches

Scene Description: Most of the arcade is a 19th-century reconstruction

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Rob Farrow, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by Rob Farrow [www.marreau.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 2 September 2008)

design element - motifs - foliage

Scene Description: as part of the interlace

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Rob Farrow, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by Rob Farrow [www.marreau.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 2 September 2008)

design element - patterns - interlace

Scene Description: some of it animal, some vegetal

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Rob Farrow, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by Rob Farrow [www.marreau.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 2 September 2008)

human figure - male - bearded

Scene Description: in one of the foliage circles of the decorative band on the upper basin side

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © http://www.norman-world.com/france/archeo/Angleterre/fonts/portfont.htm, 2003

Image Source: detail of a digital image in http://www.norman-world.com/france/archeo/Angleterre/fonts/portfont.htm

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of church exterior in context - churchyard, cemetery - northwest view

Scene Description: the tower is at the east, over the transept

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Midnightblueowl, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 July 2011 by Midnightblueowl [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_of_St_Mary's.JPG] [accessed 21 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church exterior in context - northwest view

Scene Description: Source caption: "The 12th-century church within the outer bailey of Portchester Castle was founded for the priory. It is now the parish church."

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Charles Miller, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 20 August 2010 by Charles Miller [modified] [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_within_Portchester_Castle.jpg] [accessed 21 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Johan Bakker, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 April 2010 by Johan Bakker [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1339235-Church_of_St_Mary_(3).jpg] [accessed 21 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]

Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © C.S. Drake, 2000

Image Source: colour print supplied by C.S. Drake

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received

view of font

Scene Description: the crowning (?) scene seen here in the arcade ca. 1834 has been lost

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]

Image Source: woodcut based on a drawing by Mr. N. Whittock, in Brayley (1834) [[http://books.google.ca/books?id=aY8MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA262&lpg=PA262&dq=southwick+church+font&source=web&ots=m_gYT7gOTR&sig=q_UG-Crt2kcC5u1o4nglQcsxtFg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPP8,M1] [accessed 1 September 2008]

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Rob Farrow, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by Rob Farrow [www.marreau.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 2 September 2008)

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Rob Farrow, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by Rob Farrow [www.marreau.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 2 September 2008)

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Midnightblueowl, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 22 April 2011 by Midnightblueowl [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Font_at_Portchester.JPG] [accessed 21 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Midnightblueowl, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 22 April 2011 by Midnightblueowl [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Font_at_Portchester.JPG] [accessed 21 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © http://www.norman-world.com/france/archeo/Angleterre/fonts/portfont.htm, 2003

Image Source: digital image in http://www.norman-world.com/france/archeo/Angleterre/fonts/portfont.htm

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

INFORMATION

FontID: 02187POR
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary
Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin
Church Location: Church Road, Portchester, Fareham PO16 9QW, UK -- Tel.: +44 23 9237 5422
Country Name: England
Location: Hampshire, South East
Directions to Site: Located on the A27, 10 km NNW of Portsmouth; the church is inside Porchester Castle, against the walls of the Roman outer bailey (a/p Jenkins directions (1999))
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Portsmouth
Historical Region: Hundred of Portsdown
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end
Century and Period: 12th century [re-built], Medieval [altered]
Cognate Fonts: Similar ornamentation on the font at Alphington
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Rob Farrow, of www.marreau.com, and to C.S. Drake for their photographs of this font.
Church Notes: original church built ca. 1128 by Henry I as a priory for Augustinian canons
There are two entries for Portchester [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU6204/portchester/] [accessed 21 June 2018], neither of which mentions priest or church in it. Noted and illustrated in Brayley's Illustrator of 1834: "the most remarkable object within the church is the ancient Font […] It is encircled, above the plinth, by a series on intersecting semicircular arches, interrupted in front by a compartment, which include three male figures, two of whom are kneeling, the other, who wears a helmet, is standing, and apparently, in the act of placing a crown, or chaplet, on the head of the figure immediately before him. Over the arches is a series of twelve circular compartments, conjoined, of scroll-like foliage, probably of the vine, enwreathing naked boys, in varied playful attitudes. Some plain mouldings surround the basin, which is designed for complete immersion." The basin is roughly cylindrical -the upper rim is slightly wider then the lower- and has wide band of rich interlace ornamentation which at times becomes vegetal, at others animal-like; Bond (1908) describes it as "[interlacings that] develop partly into writhing snakes, partly into foliage"; below it there is a very regular blind arcade of intersecting round arches which rest on sturdy Romanesque capitals; the lower three bands are plain. Stands on a large polygonal plinth. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction (no. 969, vol. xxxiv, 21 September 1839: 186) notes: "Porchester church has a very ancient font, of a circular form, like the ancient Roman puteal, or circular stone-mouth of the well in the antrium of a Roman house; it is decorated with intersecting arches on columns, with a frieze of foliage, and figures above." Rickman & Parker (1862) date it to the Norman period. In White (1878). Noted and illustrated in the Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 3, 1908): "The font at the west of the nave is an unusually fine twelfth-century specimen, […] circular, with a band of interlacing foliage over an arcade of interesting round-headed arches. The top only is old, the lower part dating from 1888, and replacing a brick and plaster imitation of the original work. In 1845 the original base was in existence, and is described as having the baptism of Christ sculptured on it." Jenkins (1999) describes this Norman font as "the nearest to Norman jollity [...], a work of uninhibited 12th-century carving. The drum is a zoological garden of leaves, men and beasts above intersecting arches." Described and illustrated in http://www.norman-world.com/france/archeo/Angleterre/fonts/portfont.htm

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.83671, -1.1134
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 50′ 12.16″ N, 1° 6′ 48.24″ W
UTM: 30U 632841 5633363

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone
Number of Pieces: one
Font Shape: cylindrical (unmounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage Notes: lead-lined [modern]

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2008-09-01 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908
Brayley, Edward Wedlake, The Graphic and Historical Illustrator: an original miscellany of literary, antiquarian, and topographical information […], London: J. Chidley, 1834
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
Crossley, Frederick Herbert, English Church Craftsmanship: an Introduction to the Work of the Mediaval Period and Some Account of Later Developments, London: B.T. Batsford, 1941
Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing]
Rickman, Thomas, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England, from the Conquest to the Reformation, with a Sketch of the Grecian and Roman Orders, An [7th ed. -- orig. published in 1817], Oxford and London: Parker and Co., 1881
White, William, History, gazetteer and directory of the County of Hampshire including the Isle of Wight, and [...], Sheffield: William White, 1878