Lurgashall

Results: 1 records

INFORMATION

Font ID: 06358LUR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1, fragment
Font Date: 1662? / 1661?
Font Century and Period/Style: 17th century(mid), Post-Reformation
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Lurgarshall group
Church / Chapel Name: Church of St. Lawrence [aka St. Laurence's]
Font Location in Church: [a fragment was reported in the south cloister ca 1928]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Lawrence [aka Laurence]
Church Address: Lurgashall, West Sussex, GU28 9ET
Site Location: West Sussex, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located just E of the A283, 7-8 km NE of Midhurst, 7 NW of Petworth
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Chichester
Historical Region: Hundred of Rotherbridge -- Rape of Arundel -- Sussex
Additional Comments: lost or missing font: only a fragment remain
Font Notes:
Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports "a very fine font of Sussex marble" in this church. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a square Restoration baptismal font dated 1661 and made of local Petworth marble. Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as the surviving fragment of an old baptismal font from this church; the fragment was reported in the south cloister ca. 1928. "The Luggarshall example" (ibid., p. 132) "is dated 1661 [...]. The fonts are square, and belonging to the tub-like class, but their peculiar expression is gained by carving their surface into the semblance of square blocks which alternatively protrude and recede". It is ornamented with a low-relief blind arcade (ibid., p. 75). [NB: it is not clear whether or not all the descriptive elements mentioned in Tyrrell-Green refer to the fragment, or, alternatively, the Post-Reformation font is whole and the cloister fragment is from an earlier period]. Harrison (1920) does not mention the font in this church but writes: "This E[arly] E[nglish] church has 16th c. wooden cloister on the S[outh] of nave. The tower (Perp[endicular]) was rebuilt in 17th c. Parts of the earlier 11th c. building have been incorporated in the present church ; in N[orth] Wall, pre-Conquest blocked-up doorway ; herring-bone work ; two shallow buttresses." Described in Whiteman (1994): "The font, a huge square block of Sussex marble with rusticated sides, bears the date 1662". The University of Kent, Library Services, Special Collections lists a "Black and white negative of a Church font (1661), Lurgashall, Sussex, taken on 15 April 1938 showing a church font" [ref.: UKC-RUR-MUG-BW.F223417].

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 663757 5656542
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.037062, -0.664275
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 2′ 13.42″ N, 0° 39′ 51.39″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Petworth or Sussex marble)
Number of Pieces: fragment
Font Shape: tub-shaped
Basin Exterior Shape: square

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: numbers
Inscription Location: on the basin side?
Inscription Text: [1662]? [1661]?
Inscription Notes: Dates a/p bibliographical references: C&H have 1661; Whiteman has 1662
Inscription Source: Cox & Harvey (1907: 174); Whiteman (1994: 103)

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern?
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: round and flat, with metal decoration; appears modern

REFERENCES

  • Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 174, 175
  • Harrison, Frederick, Notes on Sussex churches, Hove: Combridges, 1920, p. 148
  • Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831, p. 190-194 / [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51124] [accessed 16 February 2007]
  • Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 41, 75, 132
  • Whiteman, Ken, Ancient Churches of Suffolk, Seaford, East Sussex: S.B. Publications, 1998, p. 103