West Thorney / Thorney Island / Tornel
Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
Results: 10 records
B01: design element - motifs - chevron or zigzag
Scene Description: on the east side of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
B02: design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - 12
Scene Description: the arcade covers the south, west and north sides of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
view of font and cover - east side
Scene Description: the old basin restored and raised on a modern lower base
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
view of basin - detail
Scene Description: notice the damage and repairs to the upper part of the basin; this is the east side of the font at present
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
view of font and cover in context
Scene Description: view of the font and cover from the west end of the nave looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
view of font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2012
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 24 March 2012 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 12 April 2012)
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The British Academy & Kathryn A. Morrison, 1998
Image Source: The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/sx/wthor/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of basin - north side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The British Academy & Kathryn A. Morrison, 1998
Image Source: The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/sx/wthor/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of basin - west side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The British Academy & Kathryn A. Morrison, 1998
Image Source: The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/sx/wthor/]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
Font ID: 05910THO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Late Norman
Cognate Fonts: The font at Yapton, also in W-Sussex is somewhat alike. Atcham (Shropshire) has a much later font that resembles the design of the one at West Thorney
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Nicholas
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra
Church Address: Church Rd., West Thorney / Thorney Island, West Sussex, PO10 8DR
Site Location: West Sussex, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on the southeast side of Thorney Island, halfway between Chichester and Portsmouth, 6 km from Emsworth [Thorney Island is not really an island but a peninsula between the Chichester and Langstone harbours]
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Chichester
Additional Comments: recycled font / damaged font; the plinth/lower base is modern; there is damage on the W side of the basin -- disappeared font? (the font of the 1086 church)
Font Notes:
Click to view
Noted in Paley (1844) as a Norman font. Hussey (1852) reports "some Norm[an] ornaments" in this church but does not mention a font in it. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy circular baptismal font of the Norman period. Harrison (1920) reports a "tub-shaped and panelled" font of the Norman period in this church. Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a baptismal font from the Norman period, with a tub-shaped basin ornamented with incised zigzag motif. Its design was imitated in the late-Stuart period on the font at Atcham, in Shropshire (ibid.) The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 4, 1953) notes: "Domesday records that in 1086 'Mauger holds of the land of this church 12 hides as one manor; it is called Tornei and pays geld for 8 hides' [...] An original, perhaps single-chamber, building of the 12th century was expanded early in the 13th into a church with chancel, nave, north and south aisles, and west tower. [...] The font is tub-shaped, ornamented partly with shallow round-arched arcading, partly with cheveron ornament; it is of the 12th century." Described and illustrated in Whiteman (1994): "The early Norman font is tub-shaped and decorated with incised round arches and vertical chevron carving". The illustration shows a bucket-shaped basin mounted on a tall circular plinth and covered with a flat wooden lid; the plinth appears modern. Described and illustrated in The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (2008), which suggests a date in the early to mid-12th century, and gives the font at Yapton as cognate.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 647291 5631532
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.816764, -0.909055
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 49′ 0.35″ N, 0° 54′ 32.6″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone
Font Shape: tub-shaped
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Rim Thickness: 8 cm [calculated]
Diameter (inside rim): 57 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 73 cm*
Basin Total Height: 63 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * [CRSBI (2008)]
REFERENCES
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 222
- Harrison, Frederick, Notes on Sussex churches, Hove: Combridges, 1920, p. 200
- Hussey, Arthur, Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey mentioned in Domesday Book and those of more recent date [...], London: John Russell Smith, 1852, p. 296, entry 250
- Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 21
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 24, 44, 80
- Walker, A.K., An introduction to the study of English fonts, with details of those in Sussex, 1908, p. 44-45
- Whiteman, Ken, Ancient Churches of Suffolk, Seaford, East Sussex: S.B. Publications, 1998, p. 177