Blackawton / Blackauton

Image copyright © Roger Peters, 2005
Permission received (email of 9 January 2005)
Results: 7 records
B01: design element - motifs - foliage - honeysuckle or palmetto
BBL01: design element - motifs - sawtooth
BBU01: design element - motifs - rope moulding
LB01: design element - motifs - roll moulding - 2
R01: design element - motifs - roll moulding
view of font
INFORMATION
FontID: 06606BLA
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Michael
Church Patron Saints: St. Michael
Country Name: England
Location: Devon, South West
Directions to Site: Located 7-8 km W of Darmouth
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 12th century, Norman
Cognate Fonts: Fonts of this type at: Ashprington, Blackauton, Buckfastleigh, Denbury, Cornworthy, Dartmouth St. Petrock's, Paignton St Andrew's, Plymstock, South Brent, Thurlestone, Ugborough and Wolbororugh, all in Devon
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. Roger Peters, of www.wissensdrang.com, for his permission to use the transcription of and images from Stabb (1908)]
Font Notes: Click to view font notes
Listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as a baptismal font "among many of circular form and an early age, enriched with various carved mouldings, wreaths, scrolls, or foliage". Noted in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 simply as a Norman font. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as having a baptismal font of the Norman period. Described and illustrated in Stabb (1908): "The font [...] is Norman with circular bowl; there is cable moulding round the top, and beneath, a band of carving. It is mounted on shaft and plinth." Described and illustrated in Clarke (1916) as one of twelve Devon fonts of about the same period [Norman/Late Norman] decorated with a prominent band of honeysuckle or palmetto motif all around the basin [the twelve are: Ashprington, Blackauton, Buckfastleigh, Denbury, Cornworthy, Dartmouth St. Petrock's, Paignton St Andrew's, Plymstock, South Brent, Thurlestone, Ugborough and Wolbororugh, all in Devon], of which, Clarke adds, this is the secon largest after Paignton. Clarke (ibid.) states that with Blackauton "the honeysuckle font reaches the highest point of beauty". Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Circular, Norman, the usual type with palmette-frieze and cable-moulding above, but of unusually high quality."
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material:
stone, sandstone (red)
Font Shape: hemispheric (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Rim Thickness: 15 cm [calculated]
Diameter (inside rim): 53.75 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 83.75 cm*
Basin Depth: 25 cm*
Basin Total Height: 47.5 - 55 cm*
Height of Central Column: 17 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 82.5 cm*
Notes on Measurements: *[measurements given in inches in Clarke (1916: 319)]
LID INFORMATION
Date: inlnown
Material:
metal,
Apparatus: no
Notes: Dome-shaped, with a ball finial (appears ill-fitted to the font in Stabb's photograph of ca.1908)
REFERENCES
Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958
Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part IV", 48, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1916, pp. 302-319; r["References"]
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
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
Lysons, Daniel, Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain, London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806-1822
Pevsner, Nikolaus, South Devon, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1952
Stabb, John, Some old Devon churches, their roods, pulpits, fonts, etc., London: Simkin, [et al.], 1908-1916