Beccles / Becles

Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

Results: 11 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - pointed arches - 16

Scene Description: very shallow carving

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

information

Scene Description: posted inside the church

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

view of basin - interior

Scene Description: modern lining; central drain

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

view of church exterior - south view

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 18 April 2014 by Adrian Cable [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3940475] [accessed 18 October 2020]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - southwest end

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

view of church exterior in context - southwest view

Scene Description: Source caption: ""South West View of Beccles Church Suffolk," etching, by the British printmaker Henry Davy. 265 mm x 327 mm. Courtesy of the British Museum, London."

Image Source: digital image of a 1827 etching by Henry Davy in the Brtitish Museum [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_West_View_of_Beccles_Church_Suffolk_by_Henry_Davy.jpg] [accessed 18 October 2020]

Copyright Instructions: CC-PD-Mark / Courtesy of the British Museum

view of church interior - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 6 January 2018 by Hejen Steed [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5648596] [accessed 18 October 2020]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

view of font - upper base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

view of font in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 August 2020 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 18 October 2020)

INFORMATION

FontID: 05950BEC

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel

Church Patron Saints: St. Michael

Church Location: The Walk, Beccles NR34 9HE, UK -- Tel.: +44 1502 716370

Country Name: England

Location: Suffolk, East Anglia

Directions to Site: Located off (W) the A145, S of the A146, about 15 km WSW of Lowestoft, 20-25 km SE of Norwich

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich

Historical Region: Hundred of Wangford

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W

Century and Period: 13th century [basin only] [composite font], Medieval [composite]

Cognate Fonts: Sutton, Creed, Denham and many others all over England

Church Notes: detached bell tower built ca. 1500 is actually located on the east side of the church

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There are five entries for Beccles [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TM4290/beccles/] [accessed 18 October 2020], one of which reports "1 church. 0.2 church lands" in it. Suckling (1846-1848) notes: "There was a church at Beccles, at the time of the Domesday Survey [...] The present church occupies the site of this foundation, and was erected about the middle of the fourteenth century. [...] The font by its style evidently belonged to the older church, and is small and plain. It was repaired in 1470, at the expense of William Symonds, of Beccles, who by his will gave to the reparation 'magni fontis de Beccles iijs. iiijd.'" The Ecclesiologist (vol. 68, August 1848: 142) refers to an interesting Romanesque font in Beccles, Norfolk [NB: Beccles is in Suffolk now but appears in both/either in earlier sources] "which had been bricked up and entirely concealed, has been lately brought to light and restored. It is square, with rich sculptures, and four angular shafts." [NB: this is not the medieval font of Beccles St, Michael's]. Noted in Parker (1855): "The font is small and plain." 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". This font is one of them. Described in Simon Knott's web page [www.suffolkchurches.co.uk] as "cheap and cheerful Purbeck marble job of the 13th century, familiar from many a tiny village church, with its greenish stone and carved blank arcades. It seems rather unusual in such a big church, so perhaps the original font was destroyed in the fire, and this may have come from the now-vanished church of St Mary at the other end of the High Street." [Knott makes reference to "A terrible fire, [that] on the night of November 29th 1586, completely destroyed the church, along with 80 adjacent houses" (ibid.)]. Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble, Polygonal I Type (Octagonal): "there is a record of it being repaired in 1470 with 3s. 4d. left in the Will of William Symons de Beccles for the purpose. The stem is late medieval and the base modern" [source given: The Rector]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.45825, 1.5622

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 27′ 29.7″ N, 1° 33′ 43.92″ E

UTM: 31U 402308 5812980

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone [Purbeck marble] [basin only]

Number of Pieces: 3?

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

Drainage Notes: lead lining

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2012-02-28 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Knott, Simon, The Suffolk Churches Site, Simon Knott, 1999-. [standing permission to reproduce images received from Simon [February 2005]. Accessed: 2002-04-29 00:00:00. URL: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk.

Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975

Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England [...] Suffolk, 1855

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