Thorley nr. Bishops Stortford No. 1 / Thorleia / Torlei
Image copyright © The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006
Image and Permission received (e-mail of 19 July 2006)
Results: 8 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006
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
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006
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
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006
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 basin - interior
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006
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)
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - 20 arches
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006
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
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2007
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
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2007
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 cover
Scene Description: 19th-century font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Friends of St. James the Great, Thorley, 2006
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
Font ID: 06848THO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [19th-century base] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. James the Great
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. James the Greater [aka James the Great, James the Elder]
Church Address: Church Lane, Thorley, Hertfordshire CM23 4BE
Site Location: Hertfordshire, East, England, United Kingdom
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
Additional Comments: recycled font (abandoned, used as a trough in a barnyard, but later reinstated) -- disappeared font? (the one from the Domesday-time church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
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].
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.
COORDINATES
UTM: 31U 303129 5748098
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.84892, 0.14161
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 50′ 56.11″ N, 0° 8′ 29.8″ E
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
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-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 202
- 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, p. 220
- Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975, p. 73
- Mee, Arthur, The King's England: Hertfordshire, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, [unknown]
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Hertfordshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977, p. 363
- Tompkins, Herbert Winckworth, Hertfordshire, London: Methuen & Co., 1922, [www.guttenberg.org/files/18252/18252-8.txt]