Swarkeston / Swarkestone / Swarkston
INFORMATION
Font ID: 05635SWA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. James
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Wikidata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James%27_Church,_Swarkestone
Church Patron Saint(s): St. James (Swarkestone)
Site Location: Derbyshire, East Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Swarkestone is located 7-9 km southeast of Derby down the A514
Additional Comments: wrote to Vicar (3 Apr 2006) req'g clarification and/or photos [clarification rec'd -- no photos]
Font Notes:
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Kelly's Directories of 1881 and of 1891 reports a font "apparently Norman" inside St. James, Swarkston. Bond (1908) mentions a baptismal font of the Norman period ornamented with a Tree-of-life motif in the town of Swarkestone [NB: Bond gives the county as Norfolk in his Index locorum (ibid.) It is not clear whether Bond refers to Swarkestone, Derbys., or Swardeston, Norfk., most likely the latter] Pevsner (1978) notes the font at Swarkeston as "Norman, plain" [cf. Index entry for Swardeston, Norfolk, for the 14th-century font in that church]. [NB: The Rved. Mike Alexander, Vicar of Swarkestone, sent the following o a request by BSI: "I have checked the font at St. James, Swarkestone; it is plain with no tree of life motif." -- (e-mail of 15 April 2006)]
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
REFERENCES
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 181
- Kelly, Kelly's Directory of the counties of Derby, Notts., Leicester and Rutland, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd., 1891, p. 313
- Kelly, Eric Robert, Kelly's Directory of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, London: Kelly & Co., 1881, p. 1143
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Derbyshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1978, p. 337