Askerswell / Oscherwille
Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Standing permission
Results: 10 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of basin - interior
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - motifs - rope moulding
Scene Description: very worn, hardly any of it discernible now
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - intersecting arches
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - motifs - moulding
Scene Description: around the lower rim of the basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - southwest view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - motifs - braid - 2-strand - beaded-tape
Scene Description: on the otherwise plain stem of the base
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - plan, elevation, section and sketch
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 06655ASK
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1154?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Late Norman
Cognate Fonts: The font at Turners Puddle [cf. FontNotes]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, S aisle, by the entrance
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Michael & All Angels
Church Notes: 15thC tower; church re-built 1858
Church Address: Nallers Lane, Askerswell, Bridport DT2 9EJ , UK -- Tel.: 01297 489119
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (N) the A35, 5-6 km E of Bridport
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury
Historical Region: Hundred of Eggardon
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for Askerswell [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SY5292/askerswell/] [accessed 23 August 2018] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874) reports a Norman font here. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907), Long (1923) and Mee (1939) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. In the RCHM (1952). In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Norman, with intersecting arches." Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk] notes that "the font is very similar and appears to be from the same workshop as the font at Turners Puddle." Duke [ibid.] refers that a church leaflet dates the font "precisely to 1154" [perhaps for the date of dedication of the church?]. Noted in the CRSBI (2018): "The font is the only Romanesque feature [...] Carved from limestone, the font has a circular, convex bowl with simple, intersecting arcading springing from projecting impost blocks, which rest on plain shafting. The moulded rim has crude cable ornament. The bottom has a plain roll moulding. The circular stem is plain, except for an unfinished carved band of plaiting round the middle. This has lightly carved beading along the middle of each strand. 90 degrees of the stem has been left uncarved. The projecting spurs and base are C20th cement restoration. The font is not lead lined. The font is a simpler version of that at Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset. The intersecting arcading has been drawn closer together, the imposts and pilasters are simpler, and the rim has been simplified with a band of cable. It is possible that the two fonts were carved by the same sculptor, though that at Whitchurch is certainly the more sophisticated. Such treatment of fonts is not common in Dorset, though another example may be found at Bere Regis, where the flat intersecting arcading is packed tightly together and has a band of roundels above. Other examples, outside Dorset, may be found at Chadsunt (Warks), Oakham (Leics), where the compartments are left plain, and Lifton (Devon) (Bond, pl.90,204). More elaborate examples of this type may be found at Alphington (Devon) and Porchester, (Hants) (Bond pl.154), though the compartments are still plain, that is uncarved. It is noteworthy that the band of interlace round the stem is unfinished, which suggests that the sculptor may have been called away for work elsewhere; probably carved 'avant la pose'. Date: mid late C12th."
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Gerald Duke, of www.martinstown.co.uk, for the information on, and photographs of this font]
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone
Number of Pieces: three
Font Shape: round, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Drainage Notes: no lining
Rim Thickness: 7 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 46 cm* / 47 cm**
Diameter (includes rim): 60 cm* / **
Basin Depth: 17 cm* / 19 cm**
Basin Total Height: 31 cm* / **
Height of Base: 50 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 81 cm* / 65 cm**
Notes on Measurements: * Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk] / ** CRSBI (2018)
REFERENCES
- 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.
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 197
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1970, vol. 1: 12
- Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Wakefield: E.P. Pub. Ltd., 1973, vol. 2: 176
- 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. 20
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 79