Aldenham St John's / Eldeham / Audenham / Audham

Main image for Aldenham St John's / Eldeham / Audenham / Audham

Image copyright © [in the public domain]

PD

Results: 6 records

view of font and cover in context

[the basin sides appear now flush after the restoration of the font [cf. Font notes]]
Scene Description: [the basin sides appear now flush after the restoration of the font [cf. Font notes]]
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

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)
Copyright Instructions: PD

view of church exterior - south view

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Robin Webster, 2015
Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 June 2015 by Robin Webster [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4518790] [accessed 27 July 2016]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - plan

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © H.M.S.O., 1911
Image Source: digital image of a drawing in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Hertfordshire (1911)
Copyright Instructions: PD

design element - motifs - moulding

on the bases and capitals of the columns of the base
Scene Description: on the bases and capitals of the columns of the base
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)
Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover in context - west side

Dource caption: "Our magnificent Purbeck marble font is one of the earliest features in the church dating back to the 13th century"
Scene Description: Dource caption: "Our magnificent Purbeck marble font is one of the earliest features in the church dating back to the 13th century"
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Aldenham Church, 2021
Image Source: digital photograph in Aldenham Church [https://aldenhamchurch.com/baptisms/] [accessed 10 February 2023]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

INFORMATION

Font ID: 03171ALD
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century (mid?), Early English
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. John the Baptist
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, S side, beneath the tower
Church Patron Saint(s): St. John the Baptist
Church Address: Church Lane, Aldenham, Hertfordshire WD2 8AY
Site Location: Hertfordshire, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: This Aldenham is located between the M1 (W) and Watling Street (E), just W of the Porters Park Glof Club, Radlet [NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH ANOTHER ALDENHAM IN THIS COUNTY, NEARBY, CLOSER TO WATFORD]
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St Albans
Historical Region: Hundred of St Albans [in Domesday] -- Hundred of Dacorum
Additional Comments: disappeared font? (the one from the 12thC church here)
Font Notes:
There is an entry for this Aldenham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL1400/aldenham/] [accessed 27 July 2016], but it mentions neither cleric nor font in it. The Victoria County History (Hertford, vol. 2, 1908) notes: "The advowson of the church from the time of which we have any record of it belonged to the abbot and convent of Westminster. […] In 1217–18 the abbot of Westminster petitioned for leave to establish a chantry in the church of Aldenham […] The earliest evidence of the history of the church is given by a small twelfth-century window in the west wall of the south aisle, which though completely 'restored' appears to be in its original position. If so the church must have had a nave and a south aisle at least, of much the same size as at present, in the twelfth century. Of the chancel of this church no traces remain. The west tower was added at the beginning of the thirteenth century […] The font is of Purbeck marble, of the thirteenth century, having a square bowl resting on four shafts with a central stem." Paley (1844) learned "from the Vicar's Churchwarden, I. Mason, Esq., of Aldenham Lodge, that it [i.e., the font] is about to be repaired". By Bond's time, circa 1908, the font had already been repaired, as it shows in his illustration [NB: part of the 'repair' appears to be the flushing of the surface of the basin iseds. In Paley, the sides are divided horizontally by a 'step', the upper protruding slightly over the lower. In Bond's illustration, the sides appear flush]. Bond (ibid.) describes the type of font cover found at Aldenham as Jacobean octagonal "molded on the edge, which bears eight radiating trusses, rising from the angles and meeting at the head of a central baluster-shaped post, just below the finial, suggesting a crown", although the one at Aldenham is "boarded over; reminding one of the little ogee cappings of the turrets of many a Jacobean hall" (ibid.) Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Hertforshire (1911): "Font: of Purbeck marble, with a square bowl on a central stem and four shafts, 13th-century." Reported in Tompkins (1922): "font of Purbeck marble, probably 750 years old" [NB: Tompkins' first ed. was published in 1902, therefore, in his estimation the date of the font would have been ca. 1150]. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1977): Font: Square, C13, undecorated, on five supports." The font-cover is noted in Howard & Crossley (1919). Square mounted font made of Purbeck marble on a 5-column (1 large central colum and 4 slender corner colonnettes) base, and square lower base and plinth; the sides of the basin are totally plain, devoid of even a rim or mouldings; at the underbowl level are flat astragals to mark the top of the columns, with the same design being reproduced on the lower base, which is square and otherwise as plain as the basin. Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble on a modern plinth [source given: R.C.H.M. 1920].

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 682938 5727965
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.672834, -0.354248
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 40′ 22.2″ N, 0° 21′ 15.29″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone [Purbeck marble]
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Rim Thickness: 7.5 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 37.5 cm*
Basin Depth: 37.5 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 66 cm* (without any steps)
Trapezoidal Basin: 52.5 x 52.5 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * Paley (1844: unpaged)

LID INFORMATION

Date: Jacobean?
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: cf. FontNotes -- the two iron staples of the cover appear still in Paley's illustration of the font

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. 206, 225, 289, 291 and ill. on p. 207
  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 202
  • Enlart, Camille, Manuel d'archéologie française depuis les temps mérovingiens jusqu'à la Renaissance, Paris: Alphonse Picard & fils, 1902, p. 777 fn 3
  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Hertfordshire, London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationary Office by J. Truscott, 1911, p. 32
  • Howard, F.E., English Church Woodwork: a Study in Craftmanship during the Mediaeval period A.D. 1250-1550, London: B.T. Batsford, 1919, p. 322
  • Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975, p. 69
  • Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 15fn et al.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, Hertfordshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977, p. 66 and pl.
  • Tompkins, Herbert Winckworth, Hertfordshire, London: Methuen & Co., 1922, [www.guttenberg.org/files/18252/18252-8.txt]
  • Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 27