Holt nr. Worcester / Holt Castle / Holt Fleet / Holte [Domesday] / Hoult (Worcestershire)

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Results: 17 records

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animal - mammal - lion - head - 6

Scene Description: six lion (?) heads around the basin sides; they are not identical

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

design element - motifs - foliage

Scene Description: between the heads and on parts of the heads

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

design element - motifs - moulding - 3

Scene Description: forming the lower volume of the base; the bottom moulding has zigzag all around it

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

design element - motifs - moulding - angular - 2 - parallel

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

design element - motifs - rope - twisted

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

design element - patterns - groove - incised groove - double

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

design element - patterns - zigzag

Scene Description: around the lower of the three mouldings that form the lower volume of the base

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

view of basin - northeast side

Scene Description: [orientation is approximate]

Image Source: B&W photograph by G L Pearson in the CRSBI [www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/ed-wo-holtx.html] [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of basin - southwest side

Scene Description: [orientation is approximate]

Image Source: B&W photograph by G L Pearson in the CRSBI [www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/ed-wo-holtx.html] [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of church exterior - southwest end

Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Philip Halling [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2865858] [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital image of a coloured sketch 1876 by Henry Harris Lines, in the Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum. reproduced in http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Martin’s_Church_Holt_by_Henry_Harris_Lines.jpg [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Philip Halling [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2865873] [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph by Tina Manthorpe, April 2007, in FLICKR [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/464154063/in/pool-68878292@N00] [accessed 11 April 2008]

Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing

view of font - east side

Scene Description: [orientation is approximate]

Image Source: B&W photograph by G L Pearson in the CRSBI [www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/ed-wo-holtx.html] [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font - west side

Scene Description: [orientation is approximate]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Philip Halling [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2865881] [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font - west side

Scene Description: [orientation is approximate]

Image Source: B&W photograph by G L Pearson in the CRSBI [www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/ed-wo-holtx.html] [accessed 23 January 2014]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

INFORMATION

FontID: 03424HOL

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Martin

Church Patron Saints: St. Martin of Tours

Church Location: Holt Castle Barns, Holt, Worcester WR6 6NJ, UK

Country Name: England

Location: Worcestershire, West Midlands

Directions to Site: Located off (E) the A443, 10 km NNW of Worcester

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Worcester

Historical Region: Hundred of Oswaldslow

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, near the S door

Century and Period: 12th century [basin only] [composite font?], Medieval / composite

Church Notes: Norman church

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for this Holt in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG0738/holt/] [accessed 23 January 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. The font here is described and illustrated in Paley (1844) who describes it as a rich example of the Norman style "elaborately finished [...] with great variety of characteristic ornamental mouldings." Paley (ibid.) also reports it as being white-washed, although the then [ca. 1844] rector, who had it moved from the belfry to near the south door, had plans to "scrape it off." Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "the font has some grotesque ornaments." Noake (1848) writes: "The font must be considered as perhaps the finest Norman specimen remaining in this county: it is a large circular basin, covered with elaborate scrolls, of antique pattern, issuing from the mouths of grotesque but expressive monster masks. The pedestal is a roll and fillet, slightly twisted; the carved work is in good preservation; it is elaborately finished, and displays a greatly variety of characteristic ornamental mouldings. It measures in height 3 feet 3 inches; diameter across the top, 2 feet 9 inches; depth of bowl, 1 foot; diameter of bowl, 1 foot 1 1 inches. The font is of Purbeck marble, and has been most judiciously cleaned of the whitewash by which it was disfigured; and the rector has caused it to be removed from the belfry to near the south door, its proper situation." The National Gazetteer of 1868 notes: "The font is embellished with grotesque ornaments." Miller (1890) reports "a very fine Norman font" in this church. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as "the most beautiful Norman font in the county [...] a most rich example of carving, especially around the bow, the chief feature of which is a succession [six] of lion-like masks." Listed in Bond (1908) after Paley. Brooks & Pevsner (2007) state that the base, decorated with zigzag motif, is earlier than the Norman basin. [NB: the CRSBI entry for Pedmore [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/wo/pedmo/index.htm] [accessed 30 June 2008] points out that some of the stones from the original 12th-century church here show some stylistic resemblances between carving on the tympanum, particularly the forward-facing lion's head, with a capital in the cloister at Reading Abbey (see Stone 19.., pl.37a), as well as to the font at Holt and the upper stem of the font at Broome"]. Noted in the Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 3, 1913): "The 12th-century font is circular in form, carved with well-drawn grotesques and having a twisted fluted stem and cable mouldings." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008): "Situated at the W end of the nave. Cauldron-shaped, with a cylindrical stem and base. The font is made in two sections, the base from a pinkish sandstone, and the bowl and stem of a harder, greenish-grey sandstone, and stands on a modern cylindrical plinth. The tripartite base comprises a hollow then a shallow roll with an upright below, the last decorated with incised zigzag. The stem is carved with spiral rolls alternating with wedge mouldings; above is a beaded cable moulding, running in the opposite direction to the spirals below and surmounted by a ring of upright chip-carved scoops. The bowl is encircled by a chain of six large grotesque masks, the ribbed links emerging from their open mouths and ears. The masks have large drilled pupils, almond-shaped eyes, chip-carved eyebrows, large indented nostrils and wrinkles indicated by grooves. All the links but one contain a fluted leaf with scalloped edge issuing from the upper arc. On the SW face is a downward-pointing clenched hand, drilled above the wrist. [...] The carving on the font also shows some affinity with the carved panel set into the N tower wall at Pedmore, and possibly also with the stem of the font at Broome. Stratford in Pevsner 1968 (198, fn.) dates the work toc.1160-75, and compares it with sculpture in Herefordshire (e.g. Bromyard and Upper Sapey), although not with that of the Herefordshire School. Stylistic similarities between the sculpture of the font and the chancel arch suggest that the same workshop was responsible for both. According to the Church Guide, the font was once painted and the removal of this paintwork, probably undertaken in 1859, explains the somewhat crude condition of the surface."

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.260903, -2.251077

UTM: 30U 550441 5791256

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)

Font Shape: round (mounted) -- chalice-shaped

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: lead-lined [modern replacement]

Rim Thickness: 12.5 cm*

Diameter (inside rim): 57.5 cm*

Diameter (includes rim): 82.5 cm*

Basin Depth: 30 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 97.5 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * [Paley (1844) and Noake (1852)]

REFERENCES

The National Gazetteer: a Topographical Dictionary of the British Isles, London: Virtue & Co., 1868

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2014-01-23 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Andrews, Francis Baugh, Memorials of Old Worcestershire, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1912

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

Brooks, Alan, Worcestershire, New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2007

Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. Accessed: 2008-06-30 00:00:00. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.

Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907

Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing]

Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831

Miller, George [Revd.], The Parishes of the Diocese of Worcester, Birmingham: Hall & English, 1890

Noake, John, Noake's Guide to Worcestershire: the complete text, London; Worcester: Longman and Co.; J. Noake, 1868

Noake, John, The rambler in Worcestershire, or, Stray notes on churches and congregations, Worcester: Published and sold by all booksellers, 1848

Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844