Middleton nr. Leiston

Results: 4 records

B01: Apostle or saint - Evangelists - symbol - 4

Scene Description: alternating with angels, all around the basin

B02: angel

Scene Description: four, alternating with the four symbols of the Evangelists, all around the basin

UB01: animal - mammal - lion - sejant-gardant - 4

Scene Description: alternating with woodwooses

UB02: human figure - male - grotesque or fantastic - Green Man or woodwoose - with club - 4

Scene Description: alternating with the four lions

INFORMATION

FontID: 07396MID
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of the Holy Trinity
Church Patron Saints: The Holy Trinity
Country Name: England
Location: Suffolk, East Anglia
Directions to Site: Located off the B1122, just E of the A12, 7-8 km NW of Leiston
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 15th century, Perpendicular
Workshop/Group/Artisan: East Anglia font / Evangelists' font
Cognate Fonts: Chediston, Halesworth and Wissett, in the same area.
Parker (1855) mentions an octagonal Perpendicular font "with emblems of the Evangelists". Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as one of a group of East Anglian baptismal fonts in which "is the occurrence of alternate erect lions and wild hairy men (termed 'woodhouses') round the octagon shaft of the base". C&H mention Chediston, Halesworth, Middleton, Theberton and Wissett, all in the Hundred of Blything. This same source identifies the Evangelists' symbols alternating with angels around the sides of the basin and, around the plinth, "a much-worn black-letter inscription. Recent careful rubbings have resulted in bringing to light an interesting English distich -- 'Crystr mote us spede / And helpe alle at nede.'" Listed in Cautley (1982) as 15th-century font bearing an inscription: 'Cryst mote us spede / And helpe alle at nede'".

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: English
Inscription Notes: In very worn black-lettering
Inscription Location: on the plinth
Inscription Text: "Cryst mote us spede / And helpe alle at nede"
Inscription Source: Cox & Harvey (1907) and Cautley (1982)

REFERENCES

Cautley, Henry Munro, Suffolk churches and their treasures, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1982
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907
Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England [...] Suffolk, 1855