Woodham Ferrers / Woodham Ferris

INFORMATION

Font ID: 05969WOO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th - 14th century, Early English
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17536464
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Site Location: Essex, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located near South Woodham Ferrers, on the B1418, 12 km ESE of Chelmsford [Coordinates: 51° 40′ 12″ N, 0° 35′ 52.8″ E 51.67, 0.598] [Diocese of Chelmsford]
Font Notes:
Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Early English period. Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: plain octagonal bowl with moulded under-edge, 14th-century." Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins. Pevsner (1976) and Bettley & Pevsner (2007) note only the font cover: "Ogree-shaped, of thin ribs." The RCHM (ibid.) inventories also a holy-water stoup , probably of the 15th century, in the south porch [no separate entry in this Index]. [NB: a church in this location is reported in Domesday (1086), but we have no information on its earlier font]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

  • Bettley, James, Essex, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007, p. 854
  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 199
  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, An Inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1916-1923, vol. 4: 173
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, Essex, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976, p. 434
  • Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 31