Muchelney / Micelenye

Standing permission

Results: 10 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

Apostle or saint? - in a quatrefoil - unidentified - 3

Scene Description: it appears to be a kneeling woman in prayer, inscribed in a quatrefoil

Image Source: digital photograph taken by David Ross [www.britainexpress.com/counties/somerset/churches/muchelney.htm] [accessed 6 February 2018]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - architectural - arch or window - trefoiled - 8

design element - architectural - column - square - with capital and base

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - panel - quatrefoiled

Scene Description: some semi-covered with the four protruding columns

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - roll moulding

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - tracery - 8

Scene Description: they appear to be trefoils

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - south view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 January 2012 by Nick Chipchase [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2780875] [accessed 6 February 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior in context - northeast view

Scene Description: the parish church in the context of the abbey grounds; the church belonged to the abbey but was surrendered in 1538

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 January 2012 by Nick Chipchase [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2780839] [accessed 6 February 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Scene Description: the font at the west end

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Tony Ethridge

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font in context - west side

Scene Description: the font at the west end of the nave shows a Crucifixion scene on the west basin side -- the quadrangular gathering on the kneeling stone of the font is a set of 13thC (?) tiles originally from the abbey floor

Image Source: digital photograph taken by David Ross [www.britainexpress.com/counties/somerset/churches/muchelney.htm] [accessed 6 February 2018]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 04799MUC

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

Church Patron Saints: St. Peter & St. Paul

Church Location: Langport TA10 0DQ, UK

Country Name: England

Location: Somerset, South West

Directions to Site: Located off (S) the A372-A378 crossroads, 3 km SE of Langport, about 25 km E of Taunton

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bath & Wells

Historical Region: Hundred of Pitney -- Hundred of Abdick [in Domesday]

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

Century and Period: 14th century, Decorated

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. J.L. Symonds for his help in documenting this font, and to Tony Ethridge, of Somerset Villages, and to David Ross [www.britainexpress.com, for their recent photographs of the font and church

Church Notes: The Abbey can be dated to the Charter of Kynewulf of 762, which mentions Edwold as the then abbot, but excavations suggest that it may go back to the time of King Ine ca. 697 A.D. The abbey owned the whole village, including the parish church, when the monks surrendered it in 1538. Granted by the Crown to the Duke of Somerset, it reverted to the Crown upon the Duke's execution in 1552. (Source: John Lloyd Symonds at www.members. ozemau.com.au/~jlsymo/lloys3.htm probably after The Victoria Historia History of the County of Somerset (London: Constable, 1906- ))

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Muchelney [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST4224/muchelney/] [accessed 6 February 2018], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Wade & Wade (1929) report a "fine carved Perp[endicular] font" in this church. Baptismal font of the Decorated period; the basin is square with pronounced pillaster-like angle ends making it practically octagonal; the underbowl is chamfered and octagonal. The stem of the base is octagonal and is standing on a large rectangular plinth with a priest's stone. Described in Hutton (1957) as "a lovely early D[ecorated] font with carved quatrefoils which may have come from the Abbey." Described in Pevsner (1958): "Octagonal bowl, the diagonal strengthened by short stone posts, originally no doubt connected with the stem. In the four main panels the Crucifixion and three quatrefoils with kneeling figures." The WEB site from Muchelney [www.muchelney.com/church.htm] describes the font as "simple and lovely" and dates it to the 14th century. The basin is of rather odd shape: basically octagonal, with a quatrefoil on each panel, but four of the sides have a protruding square column sticking out of it; in one of the sides, the west, there is a crucifixion scene, while the other three have a figure in prayer framed in a quatrefoil; the octagonal stem has trefoil arches or windows on each side; the underbowl may have some design motif on it above ther centre ring. The entry for this church in the Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 3, 1974) notes: "Until 1400 Muchelney was the mother church of Drayton, and such a relationship suggests an early foundation, perhaps preceding the Conquest. [...] The church was appropriated to Muchelney abbey before 1228 [...] The font has an octagonal bowl with carved panels and four square attached shafts."

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.020556, -2.815

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 1′ 14″ N, 2° 48′ 54″ W

UTM: 30U 512976 5652127

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: square (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: square

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2018-02-06 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Hutton, Graham, English Parish Churches, London: Thames & Hudson, 1976

Pevsner, Nikolaus, South and West Somerset, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958

Wade, G.H., Somerset, London: Methurn & Co., 1929