Gwithian / St. Gwithian / Gwythen / Gwythian

Image copyright © Steve Beazley, 2003

Standing permission to reproduce

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view of font and cover

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Steve Beazley, 2003

Image Source: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission to reproduce

INFORMATION

FontID: 06085GWI
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Felix and St. Gwithian
Church Patron Saints: St. Felix & St. Gwythian [aka Gwithian, Gothian, Gocianus]
Country Name: England
Location: Cornwall, South West
Directions to Site: Located on the B3301, across the bay from St. Ives
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 12th - 13th century [basin only] [re-tooled], Medieval [composite]
Cognate Fonts: Pevsner (1970) refers it to the font at Phillack, another such example of drastic alteration
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Steve Beazley, of RootsWeb.com, for his image of this font.
Blight (1863) notes: "The font consists of a late square bowl placed on an early round shaft." Noted in Cox (1912) as a re-tooled basin of a Norman font. Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a good specimen from a group of fonts "characteristic of the Norman period in architecture […] consisting of a rectangular bowl upon a large central shaft, with four slender supporting shafts at the angles". The basin was heavily re-tooled in 1865, during the major re-building of the church; at this time "the base (and the four serpantine [sic] shafts) of the font" were added [source: http://homepages.tesco.net/~k.wasley/Gwithian.htm]. Pevsner (1970) writes: "Font. If it is medieval at all, it must be so much tampered with as to be wholly unrecognizable. It is square, with neat motifs of snake, rosette, cross, in medallions", and refers to the font at Phillack, also in Cornwall, as a case of a similar drastic alteration.

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: square (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern?
Material: wood,
Apparatus: no
Notes: flat round base, with finial mounted on four arched legs; appears modern

REFERENCES

Blight, John Thomas, "Cornish churches [pt. 9]", [214], June 1863, The Gentleman's Magazine: or, Trader's monthly intelligencer, 1863, pp. 690-701; r["References"]
Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970
Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928