East Dean nr. Chichester
Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2010
Standing permission
Results: 6 records
LB01: design element - motifs - roll moulding
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 September 2010 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
LB02: design element - patterns - fluted or ribbed
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 September 2010 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 September 2010 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 September 2010 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of base - lower base
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 September 2010 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 September 2010 by Colin Smith
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 06500DEA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Object Details: capital
Font Date: ca. 1600/1660? [basin only]
Font Century and Period/Style: 17th century[basin only] - 12th century [base?] [composite font], Baroque [composite]
Museum: ¸
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of All Saints
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): All Saints
Church Address: Newhouse Lane / The Street, East Dean, West Sussex, PO18 0JG
Site Location: West Sussex, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located in the Lavant Valley, 10 km NE of Chichester; the church is located at the N end of town
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Chichester
Historical Region: Hundred of Westbourne and Singleton -- Rape of Chichester -- Sussex
Additional Comments: re-cycled base?: believed to be an upturned 12th-century capital / composite font -- disappeared font? (the one from the mid-12thC church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
Peat & Halstead (1912) report that the basin had been broken up and used as construction filler in the church [NB: not an uncommon way of keeping the damaged or disused as part of the sacred recint; another common practice was to bury the disused font, or, less appropriately, to retire it to the churchyard or vicarage and use it as a planter]. Harrison (1920) notes a "font with a quaint base" here. The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 4, 1953) notes: "The church of East Dean, with that of Singleton [...] formed part of the prebend of the collegiate church of Arundel which was given to Chichester Cathedral in 1150. [...] It seems to have been begun in the 12th century, the probable date of the tower and transepts; the most part of the nave is slightly later [...] The font is of uncertain date; an octagonal basin rests on a thick octagonal shaft with concave faces, and this on a base resembling an inverted late-12th-century capital; the cover is of the 17th or 18th century, and the font itself is possibly of 1660." Whiteman (1994) notes: "The octagonal font, thought to be c.1600, has an intriguing base which may be an inverted 12th-century capital brought from elsewhere". The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/sx/edall/index.htm] [accessed 20 July 2006], reports and illustrates the 12th-century upturned capital now used as lower base of the otherwise modern octagonal font. [NB: we have no information on the mid-12th century church here].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Smith for his photographs of church and font
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 660511 5642136
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Drainage Notes: lead-lined
LID INFORMATION
Date: 17th-18th century?
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: flat octagonal platform with eight scroll ribs converging on a turned central pivot; said to be 17th- or 18th-century
REFERENCES
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
- Harrison, Frederick, Notes on Sussex churches, Hove: Combridges, 1920, p. 99
- Peat, Alfred H., Churches and other antiquities of West Sussex, Chichester: J.W. Moore, 1912, p. 69
- Whiteman, Ken, Ancient Churches of Suffolk, Seaford, East Sussex: S.B. Publications, 1998, p. 58