Dedham

Image copyright © Evelyn Simak, 2008

CC-BY-SA-2.0

Results: 10 records

Apostle or saint - Evangelists - symbol - 4

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Janice Tostevin, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 April 2010 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

angel - 4

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Janice Tostevin, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 April 2010 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

angel - cherub - 8

Scene Description: badly damaged, almost obliterated [cf. Font notes]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Janice Tostevin, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 April 2010 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - northeast view

Scene Description: Source caption: "St. Mary's Church, Dedham [...] appeared in many of Constable's paintings."

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Jurek and Trish Sienkiewicz, 2006

Image Source: digital photograph taken 22 September 2006 by Jurek and Trish Sienkiewicz [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/305721] [accessed 14 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - southeast view

Scene Description: Source caption: "Construction work for St Mary's church started in 1492, the year that Columbus discovered America; it was completed by the time King Henry VIII made himself head of the Church in England. Puritan Divine Matthew Newcomen, who preached before the House of Commons at Westminster, held services here, and 'Roaring' John Rogers delivered the Gospel of Salvation from the turret adjoining the porch roof to 1200 people gathered in the churchyard. The appearance of the building has changed many times since then as has the interior."

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Evelyn Simak, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 January 2008 by Evelyn Simak [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/661648] [accessed 14 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2017

Image Source: digital photograph taken 12 December 2017 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5630632] [accessed 14 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2017

Image Source: digital photograph taken 12 December 2017 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5630634] [accessed 14 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Janice Tostevin, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 April 2010 by Janice Tostevin for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Evelyn Simak, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 January 2008 by Evelyn Simak [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/661656] [accessed 14 June 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font and cover in context

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Rev. Gerard G. Moate, 2006

Image Source: digital photograph received from Rvd. Gerard G. Moate, Dedham

Copyright Instructions: Image received -- assumed right to reproduce (e-mail of 7 April 2006)

INFORMATION

FontID: 05225DED
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin
Church Location: High Street, Dedham, Essex, CO7 6DE
Country Name: England
Location: Essex, East
Directions to Site: Located 12-13 km ENE of Colchester, just off the A12
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Chelmsford
Historical Region: Hundred of Lexden
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Date: ca. 1492?
Century and Period: 15th century [basin only] -- 14th century [base only] [composite font?], Late Medieval
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Revd. Gerard G. Moate, of Dedham Parish, and to Janice & Bob Tostevin, for their information on and photographs of this font.
There is an entry for Dedham in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TM0533/dedham/] [accessed 14 June 2018), but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Bond (1908) mentions the baptismal font at Dedham as one among many on which the Greek palindrome NI[PH]ON ANOM HMATAMH MONA NO[PH]IN which he translates as "Cleanse your sin, not your face only" appears in an inscription [NB: as noted below, the inscription is not on the font itself, but on the cover]. The Greek palindrome on this cover is also documented in Cox & Harvey (1907). Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: octagonal bowl with panelled faces, carved with symbols of the Evangelists and angels; moulded lower edge with carved angels' heads, almost entirely defaced, moulded base, 15th-century." Pevsner (1976), commenting on the Perpendicular fonts in Essex, "more than can be counted, and most of them dull", remarks however that "one group at and near Dedham has figures or symbols of the evangelists instead, but the standard of carving is low" Pevsner (ibid.) reports "the figures thoroughly defaced". The Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 10, 2001) notes: "The church was given to Butley priory (Suff.) before 1230, presumably by one of the Stutevilles [...] The church of St. Mary [...] was rebuilt in the later 15th century and the early 16th [...] About 1542 the churchwardens sold most of the church plate to help build a grammar school and a bridge. They pulled down altars and made a new font to replace the ornate medieval one [...] The church was restored in 1862-3 [...] During the work the medieval font, and the 14th-century pier base on which it was later placed, were discovered under the nave floor." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add that the font was discovered during the 1861-1862 restoration of the church by J.M. Roberts, "and set on a C14 pier base found at the same time". The Deadham Parish Church site [www.dedham-parishchurch.org.uk] dates the Perpendicular church to 1492, which would probably correspond to the date of the font as well. The Revd. Gerard Moate, of Dedham Parish, informed BSI that in the late 1640s William Dowsing "destroyed all the images that were on [the font] and only the hint of an angel's wing remains to be seen". The printed church guide adds a note on a later font cover that is actually not displayed in the church at present [April 2010]: " The interesting Victorian cover was made by a village carpenter named Barber from oak timber of the ship Royal George in 1861".

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.95872, 0.9928
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 57′ 31.39″ N, 0° 59′ 34.08″ E
UTM: 31U 362085 5758350

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Drainage Notes: lead-lined
Diameter (inside rim): 63 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 82.44 cm [calculated from total circumf. 259 cm*]
Basin Depth: 50 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 110 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * [measurements taken by Janice and Bob Tostevin]

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Greek?
Inscription Notes: [NB: the inscription has the Greek letter PHI; we have used "ph" to transcribed it here]
Inscription Location: on the cover
Inscription Text: "NI[ph]ON ANOM HMATAMH MONA NO[ph]IN"
Inscription Source: Bond (1985 c1908: 113); Cox & Harvey (1907: 177)

LID INFORMATION

Date: 1861
Material: wood, oak
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2012-04-17 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Bettley, James, Essex, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007
Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Essex, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976