St. Thomas-by-Launceston / St Thomas nr. Launceston / St Thomas the Apostle Rural / Sen Tommos Lannstefan
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Results: 5 records
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Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)
Copyright Instructions: PD
human figure - head - 4
Scene Description: some bearded
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Bond (1908)
Copyright Instructions: PD
design element - motifs - floral - 6-petal - in a circle - 4
Scene Description: one on each side, between the heads
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Bond (1908)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of basin
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Bond (1908)
Copyright Instructions: PD
design element - motifs - spur - 4
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)
Copyright Instructions: PD
INFORMATION
Font ID: 07887THO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 13th century, Late Norman / Transitional?
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Cornish font
Cognate Fonts: another dozen fonts of this type in Cornwall
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Thomas
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Thomas
Church Notes: According to GENUKI, this church supported a late-Norman or early-medieval leper hospital, hence its size and importance [www.genuki.org.uk]
Church Address: St Thomas the Apostle Rural, Riverside, Launceston PL15 8DH, United kingdom
Site Location: Cornwall, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the A388, 3-4 km W of Launceston and of St Stephen-by-Launceston
Font Notes:
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Noted in Lysons (1806-1833) as one of a group of remarkable fonts in this county, "all nearly alike, being square at the top, with human heads at the corners, and circles inclosing [sic] stars on the sides, supported by serpents, &c." "The font is unusually large and of fine proportions constructed of polyphant stone". Several bibliographic sources (Bond, Cox & Harvey, Fryer, Paley, etc.) describe the Launceston font as one of a group of Norman fonts that display a head or mask at each of the four corners of the basin, while each of the sides is adorned with a large six-petal flower inside a round medallion. Paley (1844) even identifies the stone as "Exmill grey stone". However, on our on-site visit (July 1998) we found a Bodmin-type font - but in poor shape, completely recut - with the faces no longer identifiable [NB: could this be an error? Perhaps a reference to the font at Launceston?]. Since our latest bibliographic source are Cox & Harvey (1907) and Bond (1908), we assume that the font was re-cut in the 20th century. Noted in 'On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall' (1851) as one of a group of "Fonts of very similar character are to be found in the churches of S. Nunn, Altarnun ; S. James, Jacobstowe ; S. Peter, Landrake ; S. Thomas by Launceston : and there are curious fonts of different character in the churches of SS. Mevan and Issi, Mevagissey ; S. Stephen by Launceston ; S. Andrew, Whitstone ; S. Marnarch, Lanreath, &c." Cox (1912) lists this as one of a group of Cornish fonts made from "hard Hicks Mill greystone", an "exceptionally fine Norman font […] with heads at angles and 4 circular ornaments on bowl ; bowl is 36 in. square and 20 in. deep on exterior." Listed in Stocker (1997) as one of a group of "early font bowls set within bases of successors". Stone (1955) describes it as the best example of the "Exe valley group" made up of thirteen such fonts. Illustrated in A Snap in Time [http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6818792] [accessed 25 November 2009].
A 3-D model of this font made by Connor Motley may be seen in Sketchfab [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/romanesque-font-launceston-cornwall-07aa2580372c42dfab139a6baf563780] [accessed 25 July 2025]; its caption reads: "An Altarnun-type Norman font within the Church of St Thomas-by-Launceston, Cornwall. The font comes from an earlier building."
A 3-D model of this font made by Connor Motley may be seen in Sketchfab [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/romanesque-font-launceston-cornwall-07aa2580372c42dfab139a6baf563780] [accessed 25 July 2025]; its caption reads: "An Altarnun-type Norman font within the Church of St Thomas-by-Launceston, Cornwall. The font comes from an earlier building."
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 400417 5609516
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.629, -4.408
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 37′ 44.4″ N, 4° 24′ 28.8″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, [polyphant stone? Exmill grey stone? / Hicks Mill greystone?]
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Rim Thickness: 3.5 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 60 cm*
Basin Depth: 32.5 cm*
Basin Total Height: 50 cm*
Height of Base: 52.5 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 102.5 cm*
Trapezoidal Basin: 67.5 x 67.5 cm* / 90 x 90 cm**
Notes on Measurements: * measurements a/p Paley (1844), before the font was recut [cf. FontNotes] -- ** [given as "36 in. square" in Cox (1912), which does not make much change vis-à-vis Paley's earlier measurements]
LID INFORMATION
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: flat and round, with metal decoration and locking mechanism; date unknown
REFERENCES
- "On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall: a communication", 83 (April 1851) / New Series no. 47, Ecclesiologist, 1851, pp. 96-102; p. 99
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 153, 155, 181, 199 and pl. 203
- Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part V", 50, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1918, pp. 583-587; p. 585
- Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part VI", 51, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1919, pp. 211-221; p. 214
- Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912, p. 12, 224
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 193
- Friar, Stephen, The Sutton Companion to Churches, Thrupp, Stroud (Gloucs.): Sutton Publishing, 2003, p. 202
- Fryer, Alfred C., "A Group of Transitional-Norman Fonts", VII, British Archaeological Association Journal. New Series, [?], pp. 215ff; p. [?]
- Lysons, Daniel, Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain, London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806-1822, vol. III: p. ccxxiii
- Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, [unpaged]
- Stocker, D.A., "Fons et origo: The Symbolic Death and Resurrection of English Font Stones", I (1997b), Church Archaeology, 1997, pp. 17-25; p. 24
- Stone, Lawrence, Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1955, p. 89-90