Chaddesden

INFORMATION

Font ID: 05177CHA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century, Late Medieval
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary
Church Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7594296
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Site Location: Derbyshire, East Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located in the NE suburbs of Derby
Additional Comments: recycled font: "How did it happen that this large font was lost and then discovered used as a water-butt?" [cf. FontNotes]
Font Notes:
Listed in Paley (1844) as a heptagonal baptismal font. Noted in Kelly's Directory of 1881: "the font is of marble and Caen stone" [NB: is this a modern replacement font used while the old one was disused?]. In Geldart (1899) after Pugin. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font "of heptagon shape". Bond (1908) describes it simply as having an heptagonal upper slab. The WEB site www.merseyside.com gives details of churches open in Derbyshire; among them is St. Mary, Chaddesden; the site mentions a 15th-century font in this church and adds: "How did it happen that this large font was lost and then discovered used as a water-butt?", obviously referring to a period when this font was removed from the church and used for other purposes until its reinstatement back in the church.

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: heptagonal
Basin Exterior Shape: heptagonal

REFERENCES

  • Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 57
  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 165
  • Geldart, Ernest, A manual of church decoration and symbolism, containing directions and advice to those who desire worthily to deck the church at various seasons of the year: also, the explanation and the history of the symbols and emblems of religion, Oxford, London: A.R. Mobray & Co., 1899, p. 40fn
  • Kelly, Eric Robert, Kelly's Directory of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, London: Kelly & Co., 1881, p. 944
  • Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 22