Walesby nr. Market Rasen No. 3

Results: 2 records

INFORMATION

Font ID: 07630WAL
Object Type: Baptismal Font1, fragment
Font Century and Period/Style: 3rd - 5th century, Early Christian
Cognate Fonts: other such tanks listed at Bishop Norton (Lincs.) and Wellingborough (Hants.), not with the same ornamentation
Font Location in Church: [not in a church -- cf. FontNotes]
Site Location: Lincolnshire, East Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Walesby is located 5 km NE of Market Rasen
Additional Comments: damaged font: the old lead tank was damaged by ploughing and at the time of the finding
Town/City Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walesby,_Lincolnshire
Font Notes:
Noted in Pevsner, Harris and Antram (1989): a "part of a Roman lead tank bearing a chi-rho symbol and a scene of what is almost certainly a baptism, suggesting that the villa was in the C4 a centre of early Christianity" [NB: the 'villa' is about 800 m. east of Walesby and was excavated in 1961]. Described in Frend (2003) as the surviving fragment of a Roman-period baptism lead tank, one of a number of large vessels of lead of about 40 gallons' capacity [NB: note that Petts (2003) gives measurements between 97 cm and 46 cm of diameter] used for baptism in Roman Britain: "the frieze on one surviving side [...] shows below a chi-rho three panels divided by pillar standing figures; the outer two each show three men dressed in tunics and cloaks. The centre panel, though damaged by a gash caused by a plough, shows a naked woman standing, a robe slipping from her right shoulder, flanked by two matrona-like figures 'thickly veiled and draped'. These were perhaps sponsors of the neophyte about to be baptised, with the male figures representing the congregation. Their clothes were those of ordinary provincials." Frend cites Charles Thomas' Christianity in Roman Britain to A.D. 500 (London: Batsford, 1981): 221-225 and ill. 222, and D.F. Petch's "A Roman lead tank, Walesby", in Lincolnshire Archit. Archaeol. Soc. Rep. 9 (1961): 13-15, as sources. The online catalogue "The Gods and Goddesses of Roman Britain" [www.bedoyere.freeserve.co.uk/Rbgods.htm] has this font with a reference to RIB2416,14 [i.e. Collingwood and Wright, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, 1995 c1956, v.1], as bearing the leters XP [chi rho], the emblem of Christ. Listed in Taylor ([2006?]) in a group of Roman decorated tanks discovered in the East Midlands (Walesby, Bishop Norton, Caistor, Brough, Thorpe by Newark and Rushton).

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: metal, lead
Font Shape: round?
Basin Interior Shape: round?
Basin Exterior Shape: round?

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Greek
Inscription Location: on one of the panels
Inscription Text: "XP" [chi-rho]
Inscription Notes: The Greek anagram for Christ
Inscription Source: Pevsner et al (1989: 781); Frend (2003: 85)

REFERENCES

  • Frend, William H.C., "Roman Britain, a Failed Promise", The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300, York: York Medieval Press, 2003, p. 85 and fn46
  • Petts, David, "Votive Deposits and Christian Practice in Late Roman Britain", The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300, York: York Medieval Press, 2003, p. 110
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, Lincolnshire, London: Penguin, 1989, p. 781
  • Taylor, Jeremy, "An Archaeological Resource Assessment and Research Agenda for the Roman Period in the East Midlands [draft research agenda]", [2006?]
  • Thomas, Charles, Christianity in Roman Britain to A.D. 500, London: B.T. Batsford, 1981, p. 221-224 and ill. 222