Wordwell

Results: 3 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

LBH01: human figure - male - head

Scene Description: Four very crude human heads, one on each of the columns

Image Source: BSI - Photographed 24 July 1998

INFORMATION

FontID: 02499WOR

Church/Chapel: All Saints' parish church

Church Patron Saints: All Saints

Church Location: 1 Church Cottages, Wordwell, Bury Saint Edmunds IP28 6UN, United Kingdom

Country Name: England

Location: Suffolk, East Anglia

Directions to Site: Wordwell All Saints' can be found on the B1106 Bury St Edmunds to Brandon road, just north of Culford Park. Church is locked; key at nearby farmhouse. (S. Knott's WEB site, Wordwell)

Font Location in Church: West end, centre of the nave, in front of one of the Norman altar alcoves

Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Norman

Church Notes: The church has wonderful bench-end carvings and a very old and schematic tympanum now built into the inside north wall of the nave.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Probably one of the ugliest baptismal fonts in Suffolk. The cylindrical Norman (?) basin is totally plain, although Bond has a confusing entry regarding the presence of a "Tree of Spiritual Life and Knowledge" of Eastern inspiration on this font (Bond, 1908: 181). Our on-site visit (July 2000) and Knott's illustration of the font turn it out totally plain except for a very crude man's head/face carved on each of the two-part (the lower appear to have been added much later) outer shafts which make up the 5-support base (Knott's WEB site, Wordwell p.4). [NB: could it have been re-cut since Bond time?]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.316, 0.6805

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 18′ 57.6″ N, 0° 40′ 49.8″ E

UTM: 31U 341900 5798719

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown

Font Shape: round (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: the inside of the well has been plastered

Rim Thickness: 9 cm

Diameter (inside rim): 70 cm

Diameter (includes rim): 87-90 cm

Basin Depth: 32 cm (may have an inch of plaster added over it)

Height of Basin Side: 38 cm

Basin Total Height: 38 cm

Height of Base: 66 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 104 cm

Notes on Measurements: *NB: the height of the original blocks of the base (upper) is 26-27 cm. The rest appears to be a later addition.

REFERENCES

Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908

Knott, Simon, The Suffolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 1999-. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon [February 2005]. URL: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk.