Norwich No. 5 / Norwic
Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
Results: 11 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
view of font and canopy, baldachin - canopy
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © George Plunkett, 2004
Image Source: Jonathan Plunkett (from George Plunkett's collection)
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett
unidentified
Scene Description: whatever was on original the side panels was hacked off
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
design element - patterns - tracery
Scene Description: on the underside of the prominent upper moulding; some of it still remains
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
design element - motifs - floral or foliage
Scene Description: one has survived on this side of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
view of church exterior - southwest view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
view of canopy
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
design element - architectural - column - clustered columns - with capitals and bases - 8
Scene Description: much damaged now
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
design element - motifs - niche - 8
Scene Description: much damaged now; the niches have base supports for figures but whatever figural or other sculpture was there is now gone
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2020
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2020 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 27 September 2020)
view of canopy - detail
view of font canopy, baldachin - canopy
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © George Plunkett, 2004
Image Source: Jonathan Plunkett (from George Plunkett's collection)
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett
INFORMATION
Font ID: 04322NOR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1463?
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century (mid?), Perpendicular
Workshop/Group/Artisan: East Anglia font
Church / Chapel Name: Church of St. Peter. Mancroft
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Peter [originally St. Peter & St. Paul
Church Notes: Jenkins (1999) notes the ringers' "pewter beer jug capable of holding 33 pints" with which they can refresh after a demanding peal!
Church Address: Hay Hill, Norwich NR2 1QQ, UK
Site Location: Norfolk, East Anglia, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on Market Place, central Norwich
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Norwich
Historical Region: Hundred of Norwich
Additional Comments: recycled font / damaged font: years after all its sculptural ornamentation was hacked off, the sides were painted with scenes, of which only traces remain
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are ten entries for Norwich [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TG2308/norwich/] [accessed 27 September 2020]; they report "22.7 churches. 2.57 church lands" and "1 church" in them. A font here is noted in Paley (1844), Fryer (1933), Cautley (1949) and Stone (1955). The canopy over the font is noted by the architect G.E. Street in a letter to the Guardian reproduced in The Architect (issue of 30 August 1873: 101). Nichols (1994) describes the conflicting information which has circulated about this font: she reports Blomefield description of ca. 1740 as "a heavy looking thing painted and in good repair". Apparently whatever sculptural ornamentation there had been was obliterated. Nichols (Ibid.) also reports Pevsner's description of the damage to the ornamentation as having been "hacked off" and that the painting of the damaged surfaces was done ca. 1564, at the time when the walls of the church were painted. Nichols gives R.N. Flood as the person responsible for the restoration of the font in 1926 and as the major source of information for Fryer's article of 1934, and cites the source for the original donation of 1463 in payment for a new font. Noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1997): "Shafted stem, the reliefs of the Saints round the stem hacked off and the paintings [!] of the Seven Sacraments on the bowl defaced. It was given by John Cawston in 1463. -- Font canopy. A canopy, not a cover, cf. Trunch and also Durham Cathedral. Four square supports with canopied niches and crockets rise to an octagonal cornice with brattishing, on which are attached further dropped pinnacles. Above this all is Victorian: big octagonal superstructure with crocketed cap. A pelican on top." Jenkins (1999) mentions the font as "a simple Seven-Sacrament work, much battered"; he also describes the canopy over the font, which "takes the form of four Perpendicular supports rising to angels flanking (empty) niches." Cautley (1949) describes the canopy as "very much handicapped by its present top, which is a very poor restoration", and compares it to the one at Trunch, "The great glory of Norfolk" [cf. Index entry for Trunch]. The font-cover is noted in Howard & Crossley (1919). The entry for this church in Historic Churches [Listing NGR: TG2293208426] reports the church as 15th-century without any reference to an earlier building; it does not mention the font but it does the cover: "Timber font canopy on four square supports with crocketed super-structure." The canopy over the font is studied in Gillette & Stewart's The Baptismal Font Canopy of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich (Brill, 2023).
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Smith and to Jonathan Plunkett for their photographs of this church and font. We are grateful to Professor Isabelle Cochelin for bringing the 2023 reference on the canopy to our attention
COORDINATES
UTM: 31U 384472 5832226
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 52.627714, 1.293117
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 52° 37′ 39.77″ N, 1° 17′ 35.22″ E
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
LID INFORMATION
Date: Gothic style [cf. FontNotes]
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes for details]
REFERENCES
- The Baptismal Font Canopy of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich: Studies of a Medieval Monument over Four Centuries, 2023, [throughout]
- Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958, p. 279
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 301
- Cautley, Henry Munro, Norfolk Churches, Ipswich: Norman Adlard & Co., 1949, p. 23, 25
- Fryer, Alfred C., "Fonts with Representations of the Seven Sacraments Supplement", XC, Archaeological Journal, 1933, pp. 98-103; p. 98ff
- Howard, F.E., English Church Woodwork: a Study in Craftmanship during the Mediaeval period A.D. 1250-1550, London: B.T. Batsford, 1919, p. 325
- James, M. R., Suffolk and Norfolk, London, Toronto: Dent & Sons, 1930, p. 123
- Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing], p. 466
- Nichols, Ann Eljenholm, Seeable Signs: The Iconography of the Seven Sacraments 1350-1544, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1994, p. 4, 6, 52, 71n, 75-76, 106, 112, 125, 126, 308n, 309, 345
- Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 17
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East [2nd ed.], Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1997, p. 249
- Stone, Lawrence, Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1955, p. 222
- Tyack, George Smith, Lore and legend of the English Church, London: W. Andrews, 1899, p. 159