Ludlow / Lude / Ludelau / Ludelaw

INFORMATION

Font ID: 04786LUD
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Lawrence [formerly collegiate church]
Font Location in Church: Inside the church [cf. FontNotes]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Lawrence [aka Laurence]
Site Location: Shropshire, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located at the mouth of the Corve river, 35-50 km S of Shrewsbury
Additional Comments: recycled font: large Norman font which was "rescued from use as a water/trough." (Hutton, 1957, p. 54)
Font Notes:
The Salopian Shreds and Patches (issue for June 8, 1881:186) reports a visit to this church, where, in the "chapel on the south side there is a quaint font". Timmins (1899) notes: "the ancient font, a strange, archaic-looking stone vessel, large, plain and bowl-shaped, and bearing traces of the days when it did
duty as a watering trough somewhere in the vicinity." Described in Hutton (1957) as a large Norman font which was "rescued from use as a water-trough." In Newman & Pevsner (2006): "C12.Completely plain round bowl." [NB: a font "of Painswick stone, supported on Purbeck marble shafts, with an elaborate canopy on the top, and carved crockets and finial" was reported in the newly consecrated Church of St. John the Baptist, in The Salopian Shreds and Patches (ibid.)]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: hemispheric
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round

REFERENCES

  • Hutton, Graham, English Parish Churches, London: Thames & Hudson, 1976, p. 54
  • Newman, John, Shropshire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, p. 360
  • Timmins, H. Thornhill, Nooks and corners of Shropshire, London: Elliot Stock, 1899, p. 102