Portishead

Results: 2 records

INFORMATION

Font ID: 05529POR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Norman
Cognate Fonts: [cf. FontNotes]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Peter
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Peter
Site Location: Somerset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located 8 km down the coast from Avonmouth, W of the M5; about 15 km W of Bristol
Additional Comments: disused font / buried font (in a garden) / restored font
Font Notes:
Described in Rutter (1829): "The font is massive Norman, and has characteristic ornaments, executed in very bold, but rough style." Parker (1850) notes three strikingly familiar" fonts of the late-Norman period in North Weston, Portishead and Portbury. The handbook for travellers… (1869) notes: "A Norm[an] font, one of the few still well preserved." Noted in the Proceedings (1881) of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (1882): "the Norman font, now disused, which had formerly been buried in a garden." Noted in Cox & Harvey (1907) and in Wade & Wade (1929) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Bond (1908) comments about the shape of this font, as well as that of Bere Regis: "the mason may have thought that he was carving a Corinthianesque capital". Described in Pevsner (158): "Norman. Square on a circular stem, with impressive heavy angle volutes." The sides of the basin are decorated with large scrolls or volutes, and there is a roll moulding at the centre ring position; the inner well of the basin is round and lead-lined.

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Drainage Notes: lead-lined

REFERENCES

  • Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 151
  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 216, 217
  • Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 340 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hYEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=hemyock+church+font&source=bl&ots=wV68KRXFhH&sig=_-CnLgSLeYKjq8YBQMsxSQrjbvA&hl=en&ei=1IKRSeTLOojKNO3c_YkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA161,M1] [accessed 10 February 2009]
  • Parker, John Henry, A Glossary of Terms used in Grecian, Roman, Italian and Gothic Architecture, Oxford: J. H. Parker, 1850, p. 213
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, North Somerset and Bristol, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958, p. 245
  • Rutter, John, Delineations of the North Western Division of the County of Somerset, and of its [...], Shaftesbury; London: Published by the Author; Longman, Rees & Co. [...], 1829, p. 247
  • Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Proceedings [1881-1882] of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Taunton: Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1882-1883, pt. I: 71
  • Wade, G.H., Somerset, London: Methurn & Co., 1929, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12287/12287-h/12287-h.htm] [accessed 5 April 2008]