Portchester / Porcestre / Porchester / Portcestre
Image copyright © Midnightblueowl, 2011
CC-BY-SA-3.0
Results: 17 records
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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 © Rob Farrow, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Rob Farrow [www.marreau.com]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (email of 2 September 2008)
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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
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
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Copyright Statement: Image copyright © C.S. Drake, 2000
Image Source: colour print supplied by C.S. Drake
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received
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Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a B&W photograph in Bond (1908)
Copyright Instructions: PD
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 - 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)
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)
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 © 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
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
INFORMATION
Font ID: 02187POR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [re-built], Medieval [altered]
Cognate Fonts: Similar ornamentation on the font at Alphington
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Notes: original church built ca. 1128 by Henry I as a priory for Augustinian canons
Church Address: Church Road, Portchester, Fareham PO16 9QW, UK -- Tel.: +44 23 9237 5422
Site Location: Hampshire, South East, England, United Kingdom
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
Additional Comments: altered font / re-built font / re-constructed font
Font Notes:
Click to view
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
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Rob Farrow, of www.marreau.com, and to C.S. Drake for their photographs of this font.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 632841 5633363
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.83671, -1.1134
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 50′ 12.16″ N, 1° 6′ 48.24″ W
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-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 37, 149, 153, 155 and ill. on p. 154
- Brayley, Edward Wedlake, The Graphic and Historical Illustrator: an original miscellany of literary, antiquarian, and topographical information […], London: J. Chidley, 1834, p. 262 / [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]
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 200
- 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, p. 16
- Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing], p. 252
- 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, p. 162
- White, William, History, gazetteer and directory of the County of Hampshire including the Isle of Wight, and [...], Sheffield: William White, 1878, p. 371