Downton nr. Salisbury / Duntone

Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015

Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

Results: 8 records

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - 16

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 9 July 2013 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of basin and cover - southwest side

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015

Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 9 July 2013 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

view of church exterior - northeast view

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Miss Steel, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph taken 6 April 2008 by Miss Steel [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/753042] [accessed 1 March 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Scene Description: Source caption: "The chancel - St Laurence's church, Downton. The oldest part of the building dating from 1150 consists of just three western bays on the north side. The church was restored in 1648, and also according to the church guide "endured" a Victorian restoration in 1860."

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Mike Searle, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 12 October 2011 by Mike Searle [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2646440] [accessed 1 March 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Scene Description: seen from inside the chancel

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Basher Eyre, 2013

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 May 2013 by Basher Eyre [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3626686] [accessed 1 March 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - northwest view

Scene Description: slanted view across the nave and two aisles

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Basher Eyre, 2013

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 May 2013 by Basher Eyre [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3626711] [accessed 1 March 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font and cover - east side

Scene Description: the font at the west end of the south aisle

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Basher Eyre, 2013

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 May 2013 by Basher Eyre [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3626718] [accessed 1 March 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font and cover in context - southwest side

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Timothy Marlow, 2015

Image Source: digital photograph taken 9 July 2013 by Timothy Marlow

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (letter of 26 October 2013)

INFORMATION

FontID: 06649DOW
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Lawrence [aka St. Laurence's]
Church Patron Saints: St. Lawrence [aka Laurence]
Church Location: 3 Church Hatch, Downton, Wiltshire, SP5 3PU, United Kingdom
Country Name: England
Location: Wiltshire, South West
Directions to Site: Located off (S) the B3080, 10 km SSE of Salisbury
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salsbury
Historical Region: formerly Dorset -- Hundred of Downton [in Domesday]
Font Location in Church: Inisde the church, at the W end of the S aisle
Century and Period: 12th - 13th century, Late Norman / Transitional?
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Timothy Marlow for his photograph of this font
There is an entry for Downton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SU1821/downton/] [accessed 1 March 2015]; it mentions a church and church lands in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a Norman baptismal font at Downton, Wilts., but in another part of the same work, among the fonts of Dorset, the one at Downton appears described as being made of Purbeck marble. [NB: C&H are probably referring to the same font -- Dorset and Wiltshire are contiguous counties and Downton may have belonged to Dorset in the earlier county divisions]. Noted in Buck (1951) as one in a group of Norman square fonts dating between 1130 and 1200, including those at North Tidworth, Codford St. Peter, Ebbesbourne Wake, Steeple Langford, Amesbury, Maiden Bradley, Downton and Dinton. Buck (ibid.) further notes that "the side columns for supporting the bowl are now missing, although they were in place when Sir Stephen Glynne visited the church in the middle of the nineteenth century" [NB: Buck refers to the notes and sketches done by Glynne of several counties, some of which have been published in modern editions [e.g., Butler's 2007 ed. of Glynne's Yorkshire notes]]. English Heritage [Listing NGR: SU1810721616] (1960) reports a "C13 Purbeck marble font at west end of south aisle", whereas the nave itself is reported as mid-11th century. The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 11, 1980) notes: "In 1086 there was a church at Downton which, serving several villages and possibly served by more than one priest, had the characteristics of a minster. [...] The church of St. Laurence, so dedicated by 1147 [...] The three western bays of the arcade, which are of the later 12th century, probably represent the full extent of the nave at that time. They are the earliest surviving features in the building [...] The registers date from 1601"; the VCH entry does not mention a font here. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Square, with chamfered corners. Of Purbeck marble, C13. With the usual shallow blank arches." Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble, without further detail [source given: Dr. G. Dru Drury]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.993515, -1.743471
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 59′ 36.65″ N, 1° 44′ 36.5″ W
UTM: 30U 588181 5649855

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)
Font Shape: square (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern
Material: wood, oak
Apparatus: no
Notes: square and boxy, with chamfered angles, like the basin itself, moulded and deeply carved with tracery window motifs; modern

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2012-01-26 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Buck, A.G. Randle, "Some Wiltshire fonts. Part II", LIV, CXCIV (June 1951), The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 1951, pp. 19-35; r["References"]
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
Cox, John Charles, Nottinghamshire, London: Allen, 1912
Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975