Bury St. Edmunds No. 1 / Bedrisworth / Beodericsworth / St. Edmundsbury

Standing permission

Results: 20 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

Apostle or saint? - unidentified

Scene Description: holding unidentified object

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

Apostle or saint? - unidentified

Scene Description: much damaged

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

Apostle or saint? - unidentified

Scene Description: holding an unidentified object

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

Apostle or saint? - unidentified

Scene Description: holding what appears to be an ax

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

animal - mammal - lion - sejant

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

animal - mammal - lion - sejant

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

animal - mammal - lion - sejant

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

animal - mammal - lion - sejant

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - floral - square flower

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - panel - quadrangular - 4

Scene Description: [cf. FonNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - roll moulding

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

information

Scene Description: posted inside the church, by the font, on 14 June 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

symbol - bell

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

symbol - shield - blank - 4

Scene Description: [cf. FontNotes]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin - east side

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin - west side

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior

Image Source: engraving by Godfrey from a drawing in 'The Antiquarian Repertory' (1807-1809)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of church exterior - northeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 Novembrer 2010 by Chris Downer [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2187291] [accessed 16 June 2012]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font - east side

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 June 2011 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 03419BUR

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: Honey Hill, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 1RT

Country Name: England

Location: Suffolk, East Anglia

Directions to Site: Located at the A14-A134 crossroads, 20 km S of Thetford, 30 km N of Sudbury

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich

Historical Region: Hundred of Bury

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave

Date: 1506-1512

Century and Period: 16th century(early?) [re-carved basin], Perpendicular [altered?]

Workshop/Group/Artisan: heraldic font

Church Notes: There are no remains of the original Norman church here

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Bury [St Edmund's] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/] [accessed 25 September 2016]; it mentions 30 priests in it, no doubt as part of the abbey contingent. There is a drawing (?) of the font in the Abbey Church at "Edmund's Bury" listed in the 1824 auction 'Catalogue of the valuable collection of the late George Nassau, Esq.[...]'; the item is listed on p. 11, set no. 187, as "Abbey Church, Font, Gothic Ornaments, &c." [copy of the auction catalogue held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford]. Noted in Parker (1855) as a fine font of the Perpendicular period. Noted and illustrated in Knott (2007?): "Although the panels of the font bowl were destroyed by the reformers, the shaft is a nice one with lions flanking men carrying swords." The chalice shaped, octagonal mounted font at Bury St. Edmunds' St. Mary's church is a good (bad?) example of a baptismal font's trials and tribulations. Donated to the church in 1506-1512 (the date known from the extant document of bequest), the original carvings were removed in 1783 and every other side was adorned with a raised shield, while a square frame was cut into the remaining sides; the coats of arms on the shields were removed in 1928. [cf. infra]. Three receding mouldings make up the upper part of the chamfer of the underbowl, while the lower is made of small plain panels ornamented with a rosette on each. The pedestal base is octagonal, with a seated lion on every other side and a human figure (a Virtue?, a pilgrim?) on each of the other side. The information sheet inside the church reads in part: "The base of the font is very old indeed and its history is lost in antiquity. Upon the old base a new upper portion was placed in 1506, when Thomas Chappell bequeathed 'to the makyng of the newe ffonte, 1 shillinge' [...] At some time the bells and flowers were roughly hacked away from the eight faces. Perhaps this was done in 1787 when the font was 'repaired and beautified'. The font was then painted all over and armorial bearings were painted around the basin. These were the Arms of the Town, granted by King James I of England in 1606; the arms of the following families, Hannur, Hervey, Danvers, D'Arcy & Jermyn; the crest of the Town; the crest of the See of Norwich." The same source notes tha the old font was "put aside" in 1844, replaced by a Victorian fnt donated by John Fitzgerald, but was reinstated in 1912 and the paint removed in 1928.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.2424, 0.7172

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 14′ 32.64″ N, 0° 43′ 1.92″ E

UTM: 31U 344143 5790454

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone?

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

Rim Thickness: 10 cm (12.5 cm at the corners)

Diameter (inside rim): 50-60 cm

Basin Depth: 33 cm

Height of Basin Side: 32 x 46.5 cm

Basin Total Height: 70 cm

Height of Base: 48 cm

Font Height (less Plinth): 118 cm

Trapezoidal Basin: 77 x 83 cm (min.&max. diagonals of the octagon)

Notes on Measurements: BSI on-site

REFERENCES

Evans, R.H., Catalogue of the valuable collection of the late George Nassau, Esq. [...] which will be sold at auction by Mr. Evans [...] on Thrusday, March 25 [...] 1824, [London]: Printed by W. Nicol, Cleveland-row, St. James's, 1828

Knott, Simon, The Suffolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 1999-. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon [February 2005]. Accessed: 2009-11-11 00:00:00. URL: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk.

Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England [...] Suffolk, 1855