Axbridge

Image and permission received (e-mail of 2 March 2025)

Results: 14 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

angel - demi-figure - holding shield - showing wings - 8

Scene Description: some of the shields may have had emblems or coats of arms, but they appear to be blank now

Image Source: photograph taken 25 May 1982 by Tim Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

design element - architectural - window or niche - 8

Image Source: digital photograph taken October 2011 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 October 2011]

design element - motifs - moulding

Image Source: digital photograph taken October 2011 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 October 2011]

design element - motifs - quatrefoil - in a circle - in a square - 16

Scene Description: Two on each side of the octagonal basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken October 2011 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 October 2011]

view of basin - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 13 July 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 2 March 2025)

view of basin - interior

Scene Description: notice the re-tooling and the modern lining

Image Source: digital photograph taken October 2011 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 October 2011]

view of church exterior

Image Source: digital photograph taken October 2011 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 October 2011]

view of church exterior in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 13 July 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 2 March 2025)

view of church interior - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 13 July 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 2 March 2025)

view of font

Image Source: engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged]

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken October 2011 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 October 2011]

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 13 July 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 2 March 2025)

view of font and cover - southwest side

Image Source: photograph taken 25 May 1982 by Tim Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: at the west end of the nave

Image Source: digital photograph taken October 2011 by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 October 2011]

INFORMATION

FontID: 03472AXB

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. John the Baptist

Church Patron Saints: St. John the Baptist

Church Location: Back Lane, Axbridge, Somerset BS26 2AR, United Kingdom

Country Name: England

Location: Somerset, South West

Directions to Site: Located just NW of Cheddar, 30-35 km SW of Bristol

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bath & Wells

Historical Region: Hundred of Winterstoke

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

Century and Period: 15th century (early?), Perpendicular

Workshop/Group/Artisan: heraldic font

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Hinson, of www.yorkshireCDbooks.com, to Colin Smith and to Tim Marlow, for their photographs of this church and font

Church Notes: church of ca. 1400; re-built 1888

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

No entry for Axbridge found in the Domesday survey. A font here is described in Rutter (1829): "The font is ancient and curious, but much disfigured by whitewash and colouring; it well deserves to be carefully restored to its original appearance." Described and illustrated in Paley (1844): "Though wanting in the usual elegance of fifteenth century work, this Font is very characteristic of that period." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as "a handsome example" of 15th-century baptismal fonts. In Pevsner (1958): "Perp[endicular], octagonal, the underside a close rank of busts of angels; two small quatrefoils on each panel above." Octagonal mounted font; the sides proper of the basin are very short and ornamented with pairs of quatrefoil-in-a-circle-in-a-square motifs on each side; the underbowl is therefore very tall with eight large angels showing their wings and holding shields in front of them; the upper rim and surface around the inner well has been re-tooled and the lining of the well is modern; the eight sides of the stem of the base have a trefoil niche or window on each, the columns of the arches "resting on large splayed bases" (ibid.); the plinth is modern, polygonal, with kneeling stone, but in Paley's engraving it is small, plain and square. The pale-oak cover is crown-shaped and picks up the quatrefoil motifs of the basin sides; modern.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.2877, -2.8166

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 17′ 15.72″ N, 2° 48′ 59.76″ W

UTM: 30U 512789 5681835

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

Drainage Notes: lead-lined

Diameter (includes rim): 75 cm

Basin Depth: 30 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 107.5 cm

Notes on Measurements: *[uncertain: depth of bowl or height of same]. Paley (1844: unpaged)

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern

Material: wood, oak

Apparatus: no

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

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, North Somerset and Bristol, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958

Rutter, John, Delineations of the North Western Division of the County of Somerset, and of its [...], Shaftesbury; London: Published by the Author; Longman, Rees & Co. [...], 1829