Romsey No. 1 / Romescye / Romeseye / Romesie / Romesy / Romsey Extra / Romsey Infra / Rumsey

Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 October 2021)

Results: 14 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

view of basin

Scene Description: the basin of the modern round font

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 October 2021)

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: the modern font

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 19 September 2021)

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: the modern font

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 19 September 2021)

view of basin - detail

Scene Description: the modern font

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 19 September 2021)

view of basin and cover

Scene Description: one of the modern fonts in the abbey

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 25 September 2021)

view of basin and cover - detail

Scene Description: the modern font

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 19 September 2021)

view of church exterior - northeast view

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 19 September 2021)

view of church exterior - south view

Image Source: digital photograph taken November 2009 by Adrian Fletcher [www.paradoxplace.com/Photo Pages/UK/Britain_South_and_West/Romsey_Abbey/Romsey_Abbey.htm] [accessed 14 October 2011]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - Holy Rood

Scene Description: Anglo-Saxon [10thC?] rood located in St Anne's Chapel, inside the abbey

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 25 September 2021)

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Scene Description: with the modern square font in the foreground

Image Source: digital photograph taken November 2009 by Adrian Fletcher [www.paradoxplace.com/Photo Pages/UK/Britain_South_and_West/Romsey_Abbey/Romsey_Abbey.htm] [accessed 14 October 2011]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font

Scene Description: the modern round font

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 17 October 2021)

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the old font [now disappeared?]

Image Source: digital image of a detail of an engraving in Archaeology (vol. XI, pl. xii)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font and cover

Scene Description: one of the modern fonts in the abbey

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 25 September 2021)

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: the modern square font in the nave of the abbey church

Image Source: digital photograph 17 July 2021 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 19 September 2021)

INFORMATION

FontID: 07367ROM

Church/Chapel: Abbey Church of St. Mary & St. Ethelflaeda [former Benedictine convent]

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin & St. Ethelfleda [aka Elfleda]

Church Location: 9 The Abbey, Romsey SO51 8EP, UK

Country Name: England

Location: Hampshire, South East

Directions to Site: Located off (N) the A27-A3090 crossroads, 13 km NW of Southampton, 18 SW of Winchester

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Winchester

Historical Region: Hundred of King's Sombourne

Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]

Century and Period: 10th - 13th century, Medieval

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Tournai font?

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Adrian Fletcher, of www.paradoxplace.com, and to Colin Smith, for their photographs of the abbey church and the modern fonts here

Church Notes: orig. 10thC Benedictine abbey; original church sacked and burnt in Viking raid 993; re-built ca. 1000 -- see some illustrations of this magnificent abbey church in Adrian Fletcher's web site [http://www.paradoxplace.com/Photo%20Pages/UK/Britain_South_and_West/Romsey_Abbey/Romsey_Abbey.htm] [accessed 16 Sept 2011]

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Romsey abbey [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU3521/romsey/] [accessed 11 September 2018]; it does not mention a church in it but there was one there. Engraving in Archaeology (vol. XI, pl. XII) of a baptismal font consisting of a plain cubic basin raised on five square shafts, the outer four decorated with Ogee arches or windows; raised on a square lower base or plinth; the flat square font cover has decorated edges and panel ornamentation on the top [NB: the engraving is labelled "Font at Rumsey" - the spelling 'Rumsey' appears in several sources for Romsey, Hampshire]. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Tournai group, "but being in poor condition, it was broken up and thrown away at a needless restoration about 1850". Drake (2002) states that "the local archaeological society has no evidence for such a font". Parker (1850) notes and illustrates a holy-water stoup in this church, but gives no date for it. Perkins (1907) writes: "The Font is in the north aisle of the nave, dates from about the middle of the last century, and stands on the same spot as the ancient font of the church of St. Laurence. The conventual church, of course, would not need a font [!]. But in post-Reformation times one stood on a raised platform at the west end of the church." The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911) notes: "The 10th-century church, [...] is said to have been burnt during the Danish wars after the massacre of 1002, but this does not necessarily imply a destruction of the buildings. It is quite possible that they stood, repaired and enlarged, till the general rebuilding of the church, begun about 1120 [...] The church must have been finished about 1230, but no record of a consecration about that time has survived. [...] The fittings of the church are with one exception entirely modern [...] modern font of 13th-century design." There are actually two modern fonts: one, round, of 13th-century like design, located in the north aisle, just west of the north transept; the second, square, is located at the west end of the nave [NB: we have no other information on the whereabouts of the medieval font of this abbey church]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 50.989722, -1.501389

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 59′ 23″ N, 1° 30′ 5″ W

UTM: 30U 605178 5649751

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2011-08-03 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

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

Muir, Thomas S., Ecclesiological Notes on Some of the Islands of Scotland, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1885

Parker, John Henry, A Glossary of Terms used in Grecian, Roman, Italian and Gothic Architecture, Oxford: J. H. Parker, 1850

Perkins, T., Rev., A Short Account of Romsey Abbey: A Description of the Fabric and Notes on the History of the Convent of SS. Mary & Ethelfleda, London: George Bell & Sons, 1907