Sporle / Sparle / Sporle / Spurley
Image copyright © Simon Knott, 2007
Standing permission
Results: 5 records
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Simon Knott, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2007 by Simon Knott [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/sporle/sporle.htm] [accessed 26 August 2009]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - pointed arches - 16
Scene Description: the tips of the arches are covered by the cover sides
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Simon Knott, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2007 by Simon Knott [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/sporle/sporle.htm] [accessed 26 August 2009]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - northeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Simon Knott, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2007 by Simon Knott [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/sporle/sporle.htm] [accessed 9 May 2013]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - nave - looking west
Scene Description: the font visible at the west end, centre aisle
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Simon Knott, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2007 by Simon Knott [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/sporle/sporle.htm] [accessed 9 May 2013]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Simon Knott, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2007 by Simon Knott [www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/sporle/sporle.htm] [accessed 26 August 2009]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 05948SPO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century [basin only] -- 19th century [base only] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Cognate Fonts: Sutton, Beccles, Denham and many others all over England
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: The Street, Sporle, Norfolk PE32 2DR, UK
Site Location: Norfolk, East Anglia, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located just NE of Swaffham, just E of the A1065, N of the A47 [two accesses from the latter]
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Norwich
Historical Region: Hundred of Greenhoe
Additional Comments: altered font: new base
Font Notes:
Click to view
Blomefield (1805-1810) writes; "The church of Sporle is a lofty and spacious building of flint, &c. dedicated to the Virgin Mary; it has its nave, a north and south isles, covered with lead. At the west end of the nave, stands the tower of flint, with quoins and embattlements of freestone, and therein are three bells; to this tower there has been annexed a large porch embattled with freestone, and over that a room, probably for some anchorite or recluse, but it is now in ruins and uncovered. There is an old Gothick font, standing on 9 pilasters". Blomefield (ibid.) names "Robert de Finchyngfeld" as first recorded rector here, in 1300. Tyrrell-Green (1928) writes: "The octagonal form persisted in fonts of the same class in the thirteenth century, with the change that in the Early English style pointed arches take the place of rounded ones in the shallow incised arcading".
Listed in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble; "the base is high". In Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "C13. Octagonal, of Purbeck marble, originally with the familiar two shallow blank arches on each side." Noted and illustrated in Knott (2006, 2007): "a typical purbeck marble octagonal job, reset on a 19th century collonade". The lower base, octagonal and of two levels, may be original. Octagonal cover fitted to the outer basin top; 19th-century? Blomefield [cf. supra] writes on Sporle Priory: "Near to the church of Sporle stood the priory, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, but of the foundation I meet with no certain account; though King Henry II. who was Earl of Anjou, was probably the founder. It was a cell to the monastery of St. Florence at Saumers in the diocese of Anjou in France, of the order of St. Bennet", and names "John, prior of Sporle, was living in the time of King Hen. II. and witness to a deed of Ralf Bellofago, of the church of South Creke, to the monks of Castleacre."]
Listed in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble; "the base is high". In Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "C13. Octagonal, of Purbeck marble, originally with the familiar two shallow blank arches on each side." Noted and illustrated in Knott (2006, 2007): "a typical purbeck marble octagonal job, reset on a 19th century collonade". The lower base, octagonal and of two levels, may be original. Octagonal cover fitted to the outer basin top; 19th-century? Blomefield [cf. supra] writes on Sporle Priory: "Near to the church of Sporle stood the priory, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, but of the foundation I meet with no certain account; though King Henry II. who was Earl of Anjou, was probably the founder. It was a cell to the monastery of St. Florence at Saumers in the diocese of Anjou in France, of the order of St. Bennet", and names "John, prior of Sporle, was living in the time of King Hen. II. and witness to a deed of Ralf Bellofago, of the church of South Creke, to the monks of Castleacre."]
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Simon Knott, of www.suffolkchurches.co.uk, for his photographs of this church and font
COORDINATES
UTM: 31U 346786 5837891
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 52.66928, 0.734108
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 52° 40′ 9.41″ N, 0° 44′ 2.79″ E
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
REFERENCES
- Blomefield, Francis, An essay towards a topographical history of Norfolk, 1805-1810, vol. 6: 118-124 / [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=78237] [accessed 9 May 2013]
- Knott, Simon, The Norfolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 2004. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon (February 2005]. URL: www.norfolkchurches.co.uk.
- Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975, p. 78
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Norfolk 2: North-West and South (2nd ed.), London: Penguin, 1999, p. 668
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 29