Gussage All Saints
Image copyright © The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005
Standing permission
Results: 2 records
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005
Image Source: digital image The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005 [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005
Image Source: digital image The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005 [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 06648GUS
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 13th century, Late Norman / Transitional?
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of All Saints
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, S side
Church Patron Saint(s): All Saints
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located just W of the B3078, about 24 km N of Poole
Font Notes:
Click to view
Noted in the 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874): "The font, much decayed, is of Purbeck marble, and [...] belongs to the period of Transition between Norman and Early-English." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a Norman baptismal font made of Purbeck marble. Listed in Long (1923) and Mee (1939) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. [NB: not in Newman & Pevsner (1972), who note a 13th-century font in Gussage St. Michael].. The font in this church is illustrated in The Dorset Historic Churches Trust web site [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk], and does not look Norman: it consists of an octagonal basin with tapering sides and a stepped -rather than chapfered- underbowl, all raised on a plain cylindrical pedestal stem and a square lower base. Medieval? The lead lining has been made to overflow the sides in angles almost half-way down the basin sides. The font cover consists of a flat octagonal oak platform with a floriture of wrought iron on it; modern.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Robin Adeney and The Dorset Historic Churches Trust [www.dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk], for the photograph of this font
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone [Purbeck marble]
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Drainage Notes: lead lining
REFERENCES
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 197
- Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Wakefield: E.P. Pub. Ltd., 1973, vol. 3: 491
- Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; p. 75
- Mee, Arthur, The King's England. Dorset: Thomas Hardy's Country, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, p. 111