Newnham / Neuneham / Nevneham / Newnham-on-Severn
Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
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Results: 13 records
B05: Apostle or saint - with book in left hand - unidentified
Scene Description: the right hand holds the left wrist
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Paul - with sword
Scene Description: seen here in the left arch: a sword held in the right hand, a book in the left
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - patterns - X-motif
Scene Description: repeated on the column and on the inside garment of the apostle on the right
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Peter - holding 1 key
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Apostle or saint - Apostles - St. Peter - holding 1 key - detail
Scene Description: the left hand holds a scroll
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Apostle or saint - Apostles - 12 - 1 per niche
Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - architectural - arcade - round arches - columns with capitals and bases
Scene Description: each capital is different, and each column is differently patterned
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church exterior - northwest end
view of church exterior - north porch
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
view of church exterior - north side - detail
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - motifs - palmette
Scene Description: in triangular frames, at the feet of the Apostles
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
design element - motifs - sawtooth
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Baptisteria Sacra Index, 2023
Image Source: digital image of a photograph taken 19 July 2000 taken by BSI
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
INFORMATION
Font ID: 02501NEW
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Date Visited: 2000-07-19
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century (mid?), Late Norman
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Herefordshire school
Cognate Fonts: Mitcheldean and Rendcomb in Gloucestershire, and Hereford Cathedral. Also, perhaps, the base of the Burghill font.
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Peter
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, near the vestry
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Peter
Church Address: Newnham, Gloucestershire, GL14 1AE
Site Location: Gloucestershire, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Newnham [aka Newnham-on-Severn] is about 10-12 kms SW of Gloucester on the A48 (direction Newport)
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Gloucester
Historical Region: Hundred of Westbury
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for this Newnham [variant spelling] in the Domesday Survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SO6912/newnham/] [accessed 30 May 2017] but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a baptismal font of the Norman period in this church. Stone (1955) comments on the style of decoration: "The style of this group is further evidence of a mid-century geometrical return to barbaric tastes; pillars and arches are elaborately adorned with beading, chevron, spirals, and other patterns, while the draperies of the apostles have been reduced to flat linear patterns of lozenge, chevron, and parallel incisions on oblong blocks from which protrude feetand head, the whole being reminiscent of the aesthetic concepts that lay behind the apostle figures of the Book of Kells, four centuries before." The Victoria County History (Gloucester, vol. 10, 1972) notes: "The 12th-century font, archaeologically the most interesting feature […] has an arcaded bowl with somewhat rudely carved figures of the twelve apostles standing in the niches." [the footnotes in the VCH make reference to "Glos. Ch. Notes, 50" and "Trans. B.G.A.S. xxxiv. 199, 206"]. Noted in Verey & Brooks (1999-2002): "The font […] is an important Norman survival, mid-C12, and one of a group of four probably from the same workshop; the others are in Hereford Cathedral, Mitcheldean (largely a replica, and Rendcomb […] It has an arcade of twelve niches, the shafts enriched with a variety of Norman motifs, and containing the figures of the Apostles; bold hoeneysuckle ornament round the bottom." On-site notes: this goblet-shaped font has twelve niches around the basin sides, each containing the figure of an Apostle, somewhat rudely carved, with bare heads but bearded; some of them have eucharistic robes on; St. Peter holds a key and St. Paul a sword; all carry books in their hands; the pillars of the arcade are ornamented with Anglo-Norman motifs (foliage, chevrons, sunken stars, beaded-tape, etc.); the feet of the Apostles are actually carved on the upper base; the lower base has saw-tooth motif on it and is made of multiple blocks of stone.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 537938 5739080
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.80128, -2.44981
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 48′ 4.61″ N, 2° 26′ 59.32″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone
Font Shape: tub-shaped, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Rim Thickness: 10 cm
Diameter (inside rim): 58-59 cm
Diameter (includes rim): 79 cm
Basin Depth: 33 cm
Basin Total Height: 60 cm
Height of Base: 30 cm
Font Height (less Plinth): 90 cm
Font Height (with Plinth): 100 cm
Notes on Measurements: BSI on-site
REFERENCES
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 200
- Davies, J.G., The Architectural Setting of Baptism, London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962, p. ix, 80 and pl. 26
- Gethyn-Jones, Eric, The Dymock School of Sculpture, London: Phillimore, 1979, p. 37-40 and ill. 43c
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Nottinghamshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979, p. 375
- Stone, Lawrence, Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1955, p. 246-247 fn 25
- Verey, David, Gloucestershire, London: Penguin Books, 1999-2002, vol. 2: 614