Blackchurch / Black Church / Duv Regles / Meadstown / Clonmaduff? / Clonmacduff?

INFORMATION

Font ID: 02751BLA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 16th century, Medieval
Cognate Fonts: Roe suggests that, based on the remains, it probably looked like the font at Killeen
Church / Chapel Name: [unknown]
Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]
Church Notes: original church here may have existed prior to the Anglo-Norman settlement
Church Address: Meadstown, Co. Meath, Ireland
Site Location: Meath / An Mhí, Leinster, Republic of Ireland, Europe
Directions to Site: Located about 2 km WNW of Dunderry, NW of Navan
Ecclesiastic Region: [Diocese of Meath]
Additional Comments: recycled font / disappeared font: between two visits (Dr. Moore and Roe), the octagonal pedestal disappeared [to other uses?]
Font Notes:
Roe (1968: 110) reports that Dr. Beryl Moore had visited the site "some years ago" and found an octagonal pedestal and base, which she reckons would have been similar to the ones of the Killeen font. By the time of Roe's own visit to the same site in 1963, all that remained was the lower part of the base. [NB: the site appears to have included a cemetery used later by Franciscans as their burial grounds; the church here was listed in the taxatio of Pope Nicolas IV (1302-1306); the church and chancel of Clonmaduff were already reported to be in ruins in the early 17th century [http://www.meathheritage.com/index.php/archives/item/me01338-meadstown-church] [accessed 7 February 2020]; also in Cogan's Ecclesiastical History of the Diocese of Meath (1862 and 1874)].

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, type unknown
Number of Pieces: [fragment]
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal? [missing]
Drainage System: centre hole in basin

REFERENCES

  • Roe, Helen M., Medieval Fonts of Meath, Longford, Ireland: Meath Archaeological and Historical Society, 1968, p. 110