Swarkeston / Swarkestone / Swarkston

INFORMATION

FontID: 05635SWA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. James
Church Patron Saints: St. James (Swarkestone)
Country Name: England
Location: Derbyshire, East Midlands
Directions to Site: Swarkestone is located 7-9 km southeast of Derby down the A514
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 12th century, Norman
Font Notes:
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
Kelly, Kelly's Directory of the counties of Derby, Notts., Leicester and Rutland, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd., 1891
Kelly, Eric Robert, Kelly's Directory of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, London: Kelly & Co., 1881
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Derbyshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1978