Rothley / Rodolei [Domesday]

Standing permission

Results: 7 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - motifs - ball

Scene Description: at the centre of the patterns created around the basin

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken by Christopher Jones [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk/rothley-church-st-mary-and-st-john/] [accessed 24 August 2015]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - chevron or lozenge

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken by Christopher Jones [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk/rothley-church-st-mary-and-st-john/] [accessed 24 August 2015]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Christopher Jones [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk/rothley-church-st-mary-and-st-john/] [accessed 24 August 2015]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Christopher Jones [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk/rothley-church-st-mary-and-st-john/] [accessed 24 August 2015]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Christopher Jones [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk/rothley-church-st-mary-and-st-john/] [accessed 24 August 2015]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font

Scene Description: the base seen here was replaced in the Victorian period by five modern colonnettes

Image Source: engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Scene Description: the original base was replaced by these five colonnettes of Victorian taste in the 19th century

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Christopher Jones [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk/rothley-church-st-mary-and-st-john/] [accessed 24 August 2015]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 03429ROT

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Baptist

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin & St. John the Baptist

Church Location: 9 Church Street, Rothley, Leicestershire LE7 7PD

Country Name: England

Location: Leicestershire, East Midlands

Directions to Site: Located off (W) the A6, 12 km N of Leicester

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Leicester

Historical Region: Hundred of Goscote

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

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

Cognate Fonts: decorated like the fonts at Hungarton and Peckleton, in Leics., and Great Casterton, in nearby Rutland

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Christopher Jones, of Leicestershire Churches [www.leicestershirechurches.co.uk], for his photographs of this church and font

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Rothley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SK5812/rothley/] [accessed 24 August 2015]; it mentions a priest, but not a church in it, though there probably was one here. A font here is noted and illustrated in Upcott (1818). Paley (1844) found "its simplicity and singular character" very interesting; he also identified the base as modern and mentioned the lack of drainage and lining in it. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Norman period, with "an effective but simple chevron pattern covering the whole of the bowl". Tyrrell-Green (1928) describes it as a tub-shaped basin that "may also be considered as receiving its adornment which covers its whole surface, by an application of zigzag on a large scale." Noted in Pevsner (1984): "Font. Norman, circular, of drum shape, with an all-over pattern of large concentric lozenges (cf. Peckleton)." Ancient cylindrical basin has dense chevron pattern ornamentation all around, with ball motifs in its centres; raised now on five Victorian columns.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.708444, -1.134393

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 42′ 30.4″ N, 1° 8′ 3.82″ W

UTM: 30U 626037 5841471

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: cylindrical (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: no lining

Rim Thickness: 7.5 cm*

Diameter (inside rim): 48.75 cm*

Diameter (includes rim): 63.75 cm*

Basin Depth: 29.5 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 50 cm* (modern base excluded)

Notes on Measurements: * Paley (1844: unpaged)

REFERENCES

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

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

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Leicestershire and Rutland, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984

Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928

Upcott, William, A bibliographical account of the principal works relating to English topography, London: Printed by Richard and Arthur Taylor, 1818