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 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 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
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [www.allthecotswolds.com]
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 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 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 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
Font ID: 07070BID
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Nicholas
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra
Site Location: Wiltshire, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located just W of Chippenham
Historical Region: formerly Somerset
Font Notes:
Click to view
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.
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
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; p. 466
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 216, 217, 227
- Cox, John Charles, Nottinghamshire, London: Allen, 1912, p. 111
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 26 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hYEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=hemyock+church+font&source=bl&ots=wV68KRXFhH&sig=_-CnLgSLeYKjq8YBQMsxSQrjbvA&hl=en&ei=1IKRSeTLOojKNO3c_YkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPR1,M1] [accessed 10 February 2009]