Biddestone / Biddiston / Biddeston

Image copyright © Duncan & Mandy Ball, 2008

Standing permission

Results: 10 records

B01: design element - motifs - chevron

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Wiltshire County Council Libraries & Heritage, 2008

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph in Wiltshire Community History [http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getchurch.php?id=997] [accessed 13 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

LB01: design element - motifs - roll moulding

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Duncan & Mandy Ball, 2008

Image Source: photograph by Duncan & Mandy Ball [http://www.oodwooc.co.uk/ph_bidde_in.htm] [accessed 14 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

LBH01: human figure - head - 4

Scene Description: only one appears to have survived whole enough to identify a long-haired bearded male

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Duncan & Mandy Ball, 2008

Image Source: detail of a photograph by Duncan & Mandy Ball [http://www.oodwooc.co.uk/ph_bidde_in.htm] [accessed 14 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - south view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [www.allthecotswolds.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Scene Description: the top of the font and cover in the foreground

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Duncan & Mandy Ball, 2008

Image Source: photograph by Duncan & Mandy Ball [http://www.oodwooc.co.uk/ph_bidde_in.htm] [accessed 14 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Scene Description: the font and cover at the back

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Duncan & Mandy Ball, 2008

Image Source: photograph by Duncan & Mandy Ball [http://www.oodwooc.co.uk/ph_bidde_in.htm] [accessed 14 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [www.allthecotswolds.com]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Wiltshire County Council Libraries & Heritage, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph in Wiltshire Community History [http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getchurch.php?id=997] [accessed 13 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover in context

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Duncan & Mandy Ball, 2008

Image Source: photograph by Duncan & Mandy Ball [http://www.oodwooc.co.uk/ph_bidde_in.htm] [accessed 14 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font cover

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Duncan & Mandy Ball, 2008

Image Source: detail of a photograph by Duncan & Mandy Ball [http://www.oodwooc.co.uk/ph_bidde_in.htm] [accessed 14 August 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 07070BID
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Nicholas
Church Patron Saints: St. Nicholas of Myra
Country Name: England
Location: Wiltshire, South West
Directions to Site: Located just W of Chippenham
Historical Region: formerly Somerset
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 12th century, Norman
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Wilkes, of www.allthecotswolds.com, to Duncan & Mandy Ball, and to the Wiltshire County Council Libraries & Heritage for their permission to reproduce their photographs of this church and font
Noted in the Handbook for travellers… (1869) as a baptismal font in the Norman style. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period, "tub-shaped, and sculptured with the chevron moulding". The font is listed by C&H (ibid.) in Somerset with the spelling "Biddiston"; later in the same source; the font is listed in Wiltshire with the spelling "Biddeston" [NB: the modern spelling is "Biddestone" and it is now -2000- part of Wiltshire]. Buck (1950) classes this font in a Wiltshire group [Ditteridge, Biddestone, Tytherton Lucas, Staton St. Quintin, Winterbourne Monkton and Donhead St. Mary] defined as 'unmounted circular tub fonts' from the 'Middle Norman' period of ca. 1100-1150: "The main ornament is a nine-inch band of convex zigzag in relief; the square base has four worn heads at the corners." Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Norman, circular, with just one big band of flat zigzag. At the four corners of the foot defaced heads." The baptismal font consists of a tub-shaped basin with tapering sides decorated around the upper part with a thick chevron motif; raised on a lower base that starts at the top with a thick roll moulding, has human heads [only one of them remains undamaged enough to be identified] at 90-degree angles, and turns square at the bottom with two volumes; there is evidence of damage to the upper rim of the basin; the basin well is lead lined. Round and rather voluminous wooden font cover with a variety of motifs carved on it; cylindrical base with a squat conical upper part and a turned finial; probably Victorian.

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: tub-shaped (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round

LID INFORMATION

Date: 19th-century?
Material: wood,
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Buck, A.G. Randle, "Some Wiltshire fonts. Part I", LIII, CXCIII (December 1950), The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 1950, pp. 458-470; r["References"]
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
Cox, John Charles, Nottinghamshire, London: Allen, 1912
Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869