Thorley nr. Bishops Stortford No. 1 / Thorleia / Torlei

Image and Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)

Results: 8 records

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design element - architectural - arcade - blind - 20 arches

Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]

Image Source: digital photograph supplied by Philip Hargrave, of The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley (July 2006) [www.btinternet.com/~friends.stjames/index.htm]

Copyright Instructions: Image and Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)

view of basin - interior

Image Source: digital photograph supplied by Philip Hargrave, of The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley (July 2006) [www.btinternet.com/~friends.stjames/index.htm]

Copyright Instructions: Image and Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)

view of church exterior - northeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 April 2003 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/350456] [accessed 26 October 2016]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Scene Description: a bit of the upper corner of the old basin can be discerned here, in the foreground, left side, giving away the location of the font in the nave, opposite the south entranceway

Image Source: digital photograph taken 24 April 2003 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/350459] [accessed 26 October 2016]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Image Source: digital image of a drawing in The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006 [www.btinternet.com/~friends.stjames/index.htm]

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph supplied by Philip Hargrave, of The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley (July 2006) [www.btinternet.com/~friends.stjames/index.htm]

Copyright Instructions: Image and Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph supplied by Philip Hargrave, of The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley (July 2006) [www.btinternet.com/~friends.stjames/index.htm]

Copyright Instructions: Image and Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)

view of font cover

Scene Description: 19th-century font cover

Image Source: digital photograph supplied by Philip Hargrave, of The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley (July 2006)

Copyright Instructions: Image and Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)

INFORMATION

FontID: 06848THO

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. James the Great

Church Patron Saints: St. James the Greater [aka James the Great, James the Elder]

Church Location: Church Lane, Thorley, Hertfordshire CM23 4BE

Country Name: England

Location: Hertfordshire, East

Directions to Site: Thorley is adjacent to Bishops Stortford on the SW, off the A1184

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St. Albans

Historical Region: Hundred of Braughing [aka Brauging] -- formerly Essex

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Century and Period: 12th century [19th-century base] [composite font], Medieval [composite]

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Philip Hargrave and The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley [www.btinternet.com/~friends.stjames/index.htm], for their photographs of this font.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There are two entries for this Thorley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL4719/thorley/] [accessed 26 October 2016], one of which mentions a priest but not a church in it, though there probably was one there. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a baptismal font of the Norman period here. Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Hertfordshire (1911): "Font: square bowl, ornamented with round-headed sunk opanels, 12th-century, on modern stem." The Victoria County History (Hertford, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The church of Thorley was part of the endowment of Walden Abbey, founded by Geoffrey de Mandeville (ob. 1144). [...] The nave and chancel were built in the early part of the 13th century, but the south doorway, of 12th-century work, remains. [...] The basin of the font is square, and on each side are five shallow round-headed panels; it belongs to the 12th century and stands on a modern base." Tompkins (1922) writes: "The font, as at Bishop's Stortford, was a modern discovery." Tompkins (ibid.) notes also that there is "a niche for a holy water basin" in the W entrance [cf. Index entry for Thorley No. 2]. Mee (1939) comments that the delicate capitals of the inner doorway into the tower were "probably carved by the craftsman who made the font." In Pevsner & Cherry (1977): "Font. Square, C12, of Purbeck marble, with five shallow blank arches on each side." The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley [www.btinternet.com/~friends.stjames/index.htm] notes: "The marble font, of the [...] 12th Century [...] was later discarded from the church --possibly during Cromwell's puritan purges-- and used as drinking trough in a local farmyard. In 1855 this ancient font was restored to its present situation complete with a new base and cover." Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "bowl with five panels on each face" [source given: Pevsner, Herfordshire, 1953].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.84892, 0.14161

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 50′ 56.11″ N, 0° 8′ 29.8″ E

UTM: 31U 303129 5748098

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)

Font Shape: square (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: square

Drainage Notes: lead lining

LID INFORMATION

Date: 19th century

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: round and flat, with metal decoration and ring handle

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2016-10-26 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Hertfordshire, London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationary Office by J. Truscott, 1911

Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975

Mee, Arthur, The King's England: Hertfordshire, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Hertfordshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977

Tompkins, Herbert Winckworth, Hertfordshire, London: Methuen & Co., 1922