Alveston / Alwestan
Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2007
Standing permission
Results: 3 records
BBL01: design element - motifs - scallop - 12
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes April 2007 [www.allthecotswolds.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes April 2007 [www.allthecotswolds.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - west tower
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes April 2007 [www.allthecotswolds.com]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 05075ALV
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Late Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Helen [new]
Font Location in Church: Inside the new church, in the W end of the nave
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Helena
Church Address: Alveston, South Gloucestershire, BS35 3QT -- the old church is on the B4427, Alveston, South Gloucestershire BS35 3SQ
Site Location: Gloucestershire, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on the B4427, NW of Bristol [Alveston and Rudgeway are in the same parish
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bristol
Historical Region: Hundred of Langley [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: altered / repaired font / re-cycled font
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for this Alveston [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST6288/alveston/] [accessed 2 March 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. A font here is listed in Tymms (1834). This is the original Norman font from Old St. Helen's, the original church in nearby Rudgeway. Very little remains of the old church [cf. Index entry for Rudgeway], but the font was installed in new St. Helen's, Alveston [source: e-mail from John Wilkes, 10 April 2007]. Noted in Bond (1908) as having a basin of the scalloped-capital type. Noted in Verey & Brooks (1999-2002): "Font. Norman, removed from the old church, but much scraped. Plain rectangular bowl with three scallops to each face, on a cylindrical pedestal." The font consists of a square basin with verticals side that are plain but for the three scallops at the bottom; the scallops continue over as ribbing on the underbowl; plain cylindrical stem with narrow splaying lower base, round as well; small quadrangular plinth. Square wooden cover with flat cross partition on the upper surface. Repairs show on at least one side of the upper rim, probably where the old iron staples were removed or broken off.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Wilkes, of www.allthecotswolds.com, for his photographs of church and font.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 532687 5715006
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.585166, -2.528204
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 35′ 6.6″ N, 2° 31′ 41.53″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Exterior Shape: square
LID INFORMATION
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
REFERENCES
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 151
- Tymms, Samuel, Family Topographer, being a compendious account of the antient and present state of the counties of England: vol. IV, Oxford circuit, London: Nichols & Son, 1834, p. 51 / [http://books.google.com/books?id=qcouAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=kempsford+church+font&source=web&ots=h2yFXWCzVN&sig=wFjiUVbwBUazMXVSJwmmw5-jmlA] [accessed 23 September 2007]
- Verey, David, Gloucestershire, London: Penguin Books, 1999-2002, vol. 2: 144