West Thorney / Thorney Island / Tornel

PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

Results: 10 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B01: design element - motifs - chevron or zigzag

Scene Description: on the east side of the basin

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

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 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

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 basin - north side

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

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 church exterior - southeast view

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

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 font and cover - east side

Scene Description: the old basin restored and raised on a modern lower base

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

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

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)

INFORMATION

FontID: 05910THO

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Nicholas

Church Patron Saints: St. Nicholas of Myra

Church Location: Church Rd., West Thorney / Thorney Island, West Sussex, PO10 8DR

Country Name: England

Location: West Sussex, South East

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

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave

Century and Period: 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

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

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

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.816764, -0.909055

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 49′ 0.35″ N, 0° 54′ 32.6″ W

UTM: 30U 647291 5631532

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-. Accessed: 2012-04-15 00:00:00. 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. Accessed: 2005-03-19 00:00:00. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.

Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907

Harrison, Frederick, Notes on Sussex churches, Hove: Combridges, 1920

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

Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844

Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928

Walker, A.K., An introduction to the study of English fonts, with details of those in Sussex, 1908

Whiteman, Ken, Ancient Churches of Suffolk, Seaford, East Sussex: S.B. Publications, 1998