Castle Acre No. 1 / Acre / Castleacre

Standing permission

Results: 11 records

Click to view images

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 May 2005 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/castleacre/castleacre.htm] [accessed 20 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - piping

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 May 2005 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/castleacre/castleacre.htm] [accessed 20 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - northeast view

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 22 August 1985 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/C/Castle Acre St James' church from NE [6340] 1985-08-22.jpg] [accessed 6 November 2013]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 22 August 1985 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/C/Castle Acre St James' church from SE [6339] 1985-08-22.jpg] [accessed 6 November 2013]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church exterior - northeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 May 2005 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/castleacre/castleacre.htm] [accessed 20 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - pulpit

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 15 September 1946 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/C/Castle Acre St James' church 15c pulpit [3640] 1946-09-15.jpg] [accessed 6 November 2013]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: by the tower arch

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 May 2005 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/castleacre/castleacre.htm] [accessed 20 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Image Source: B&W photograph in Bond (1908)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of church interior

Scene Description: photograph in Cautley (1949) showing the font cover in its setting at the centre of the nave

Image Source: B&W photograph in Cautley (1949: 138)

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission received from the publisher

view of font cover - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 May 2005 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/castleacre/castleacre.htm] [accessed 20 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - piping

Image Source: digital photograph taken 28 May 2005 by Simon Knott [http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/castleacre/castleacre.htm] [accessed 20 July 2009]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

Font ID: 04459CAS

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century, Perpendicular

Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. James the Great

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

Church Patron Saint(s): St. James the Greater [aka James the Great, James the Elder]

Church Address: Stocks Green, Castle Acre, Norfolk, PE32 2AA

Site Location: Norfolk, East Anglia, England, United Kingdom

Directions to Site: Located 6 km N of Swaffham, 18-20 km E of King's Lynn

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Norwich

Historical Region: Hundred and half of Freenridge

Font Notes: Click to view

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes that at the time of Domesday survey "here was a church then endowed with 30 acres"; the church may have been in place in pre-Conquest times. Blomefield (ibid.) adds: "The Church is dedicated to St. James, and was a rectory[...], and being appropriated to the priory, a vicarage was endowed [...] It is a large regular building, consisting of a nave, a north and south isle, covered with lead, and a chancel thatched; at the west end is a lofty four-square tower, with 5 bells [...] Here is a font with a remarkable lofty cover, ornamented with antique carved work, and painting." [NB: does the comma mean that the description applies to the font?] It is the font cover at Castle Acre, rather than the font itself, however, that earns a mention in most sources. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "the font, which is said to have been removed from the priory, is surmounted by a beautiful piece of tabernacle work". Noted in Paley (1844). Described and illustrated in Cautley (1949) as "lovely lofty and tabernacled". Jenkins (1999) writes: "a superb font cover rises on the slenderest of wooden supports. It is plain but remarkable for its height and medieval colouring." Regarding the colouring Bond (1908) refers to the "Notices of Castle Acre", by the rev. J.H. Bloom (London, 1843) which provided with a detailed chronicle of the chromatic avatars undergone by this cover; suffice it to say that the original array of glittering colours were smothered circa 1780 by "one uniform scarlet." Pevsner & Wilson (1999) describe the font, as well as the cover: "Font. Tall, octagonal, with rolls curving up the edges from the stem to the bowl. C15". The font itself is an unremarkable octagonal object; the sides of the basin are vertical but slope into a chamfer at the bottom of the panels and then vertical again at the stem of the base. There are two wide polygonal plinths with priest's stone. The present lid of the basin is flat with a large acorn finial. [NB: a modern copy of this font cover is at Acle, Norfolk]. [NB: the Castle Acre Priory, founded in the 11th century and now in ruins, may have had a font in its church in the years that it would have functioned as parish church as well; we have no information on it]. The font-cover is noted in Howard & Crossley (1919).

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Simon Knott, of Norfolk Churches [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk], for his photographs of this font; we are also grateful to Jonathan Plunkett for the photographs of this church, taken by his father, George Plunkett, in 1946 and 1985

COORDINATES

UTM: 31U 343643 5841688

Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 52.702486, 0.685853

Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 52° 42′ 8.95″ N, 0° 41′ 9.07″ E

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: octagonal, mounted

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Date: 15th century?

Material: wood, oak?

Apparatus: no; telescopic font cover

Notes: [cf. FontNotes for details]

REFERENCES

Blomefield, Francis, An essay towards a topographical history of Norfolk, 1805-1810, vol. 8: 356-377 / [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=78480] [accessed 6 November 2013]
Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 287, 289, 301 and ill. on p. 290
Cautley, Henry Munro, Norfolk Churches, Ipswich: Norman Adlard & Co., 1949, p. 25 and ill. on p. 138
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. 187
Jenkins, Simon, England's Thousand Best Churches, London and New York: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999 [2000 rev. printing], p. 451
Knott, Simon, The Norfolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 2004. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon (February 2005]. URL: www.norfolkchurches.co.uk.
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, [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=50860] [accessed 8 January 2007]
Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 25
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Norfolk 2: North-West and South (2nd ed.), London: Penguin, 1999, p. 242