Winchester No. 2 / Venta Belgarum / Wintanceaster / Yenta Belgaruan

Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 5 February 2023)

Results: 8 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches

Scene Description: on at least two of the sides; six arches per side

Image Source: digital photograph by Mary Chisholm / Exploring Building History

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 5 February 2023)

design element - motifs - foliage

Scene Description: large leaves on stems, on at least one side of the basin

Image Source: digital photograph by Mary Chisholm / Exploring Building History

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 5 February 2023)

view of church exterior

Image Source: digital photograph in Southern Life [http://www.southernlife.org.uk/stcross_hospital.htm] [accessed 20 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received from Chris Hayles, webmaster (e-mail of 21 October 2007)

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital photograph in Southern Life [http://www.southernlife.org.uk/stcross_hospital.htm] [accessed 20 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received from Chris Hayles, webmaster (e-mail of 21 October 2007)

view of church interior - plan

Image Source: digital image in the Victoria County History [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42051] [accessed 20 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of font

Scene Description: on its new base

Image Source: illustration of unknown or unrecorded source [probably 19th-century]

Copyright Instructions: Assumed PD

view of font

Scene Description: on its new base

Image Source: digital photograph in Southern Life [http://www.southernlife.org.uk/stcross_hospital.htm] [accessed 20 October 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received from Chris Hayles, webmaster (e-mail of 21 October 2007)

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph by Mary Chisholm / Exploring Building History

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 5 February 2023)

INFORMATION

FontID: 05679WIN

Church/Chapel: Church at St Cross Hospital

Country Name: England

Location: Hampshire, South East

Directions to Site: Located at the confluence of the B3404, B3330, B3331, B3420, W of the A31 and the M3, 20-22 km NE of Southampton

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Winchester

Font Location in Church: Inside the Hospital church [originally at St. Faith's until it was pilled down in 1509]

Date: ca. 1160? [basin only]

Century and Period: 12th century [basin only], Medieval [composite]

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Tournai font?

Cognate Fonts: other Tournai or Tournai-type fonts in Britain, France and Belgium

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Chris Hayley, of Southern Life [www.southernlife.org.uk] and to Mary Chisholm, of Explring Building History, for their photographs of building and font.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Bond (1908) mentions that, among many other objects, Purbeck marble was employed for the shafts of the font at St Cross's Hospital [NB: Bond must have been referring to the original (?) base from secondary sources because there is at least one 19th-century source [cf. ImagesArea] that shows the old basin already mounted on a replacement base. The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 5, 1912) notes the new base already in place: "The bowl of the font, of black Tournai marble, is of 12th-century date. It is square and shallow and stands on a later stone base". Dru Drury (1949) reports a font made of Purbeck marble "at St. Cross near Winchester (originally in the parish church of St. Faith which was pulled down in 1509)". A page of the Diocese of Winchester (C of E) [http://www.winchester.anglican.org/bm160907.htm] [accessed 20 October 2007] quotes Peter Hopewell [his 'Saint Cross', 1995]: "According to the description in Peter Hopewell’s splendidly informative history, they and the Hospital were already friends as well as neighbours, at least since the Master became Rector of the parish in 1446 in the course of Cardinal Beaufort’s re-founding of the Hospital; and they brought some precious things with them as a bit of a dowry – their ancient font (a piece of gear that the Hospital had not needed), their bell, and some stone screens." Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: bowl now in St. Cross, Winchester. St. Faith's was demolished in 1509" [source given: Dr. G. Dru Drury].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.060556, -1.313056

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 3′ 38″ N, 1° 18′ 47″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)

Font Shape: square (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: square

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2007-10-20 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Dru Drury, G., "The use of Purbeck in mediaeval times", 70, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1949, pp. 74-98; r["References"]

Hopewell, Peter, Saint Cross: England's oldest almshouse, 1995