Great Yarmouth / Gernemwa

Standing permission

Results: 10 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - motifs - flat moulding

Image Source: digital image by Peter Fairweather [www.churchmousewebsite.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - foliage

Image Source: digital image by Peter Fairweather [www.churchmousewebsite.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - moulding

Image Source: digital image by Peter Fairweather [www.churchmousewebsite.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - scallop

Image Source: digital image by Peter Fairweather [www.churchmousewebsite.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior

Scene Description: Photo caption: "The church and its adjoining priory were founded by Herbert de Losinga who was bishop of Norwich in 1101. It is the largest parish church in the country and arguably the oldest building in Great Yarmouth, presently housing a free heritage exhibition showing its role in the history of Yarmouth. Much of the interior was destroyed during the Reformation and in 1649 the building was divided into three separate parts. After the collapse of the chancel and the general decline of the whole structure the church was restored and renovated in 1905, only to be gutted by a bomb dropped in 1942 by a German plane, leaving only the Norman tower and the walls standing. However, with the aid of a War Damage Commission grant and fund raising by local people and businesses the church was rebuilt."

Image Source: digital photograph taken 10 April 2011 by EvelynSimak [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2350653] [accessed 9 June 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church exterior - northeast view

Scene Description: Photo caption: "Reputedly the largest parish church in England. Founded by Bishop Herbert de Losinga some time before his death in 1119 and used by the monks of the adjoining Benedictine Priory"

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 1 August 1936 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/G/Gt Yarmouth St Nicholas' church from NE [1235] 1936-08-01.jpg] [accessed 9 June 2014]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church exterior - south view

Scene Description: Photo caption: "Tower and south transept"

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 24 June 1950 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/G/Gt Yarmouth St Nicholas' church ruin from S [3884] 1950-06-24.jpg] [accessed 9 June 2014]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Scene Description: Photo caption: "Interior view east. Gutted by air raid 1942"

Image Source: B&W photograph taken 24 June 1950 by George Plunkett [www.georgeplunkett.co.uk/Norfolk/G/Gt Yarmouth St Nicholas' church nave ruin [3883] 1950-06-24.jpg]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission by Jonathan Plunkett

view of font and cover

Scene Description: he font and cover ca. 1951, prior to its move from Highway St. Peter's to Great Yarmouth

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital image by Peter Fairweather [www.churchmousewebsite.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 08890YAR

Church/Chapel: St. Nicholas Church and Priory [originally from the church of St. Peter in Highway, Wiltshire]

Church Patron Saints: St. Nicholas of Myra

Church Location: Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR30 1NE

Country Name: England

Location: Norfolk, East Anglia

Directions to Site: Located on the E coast, 32 km E of Norwich

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Norwich

Historical Region: Hundred of East Flegg

Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]

Date: ca. 1123?

Century and Period: 12th century [basin only] -- 13th century [base] [composite font], Medieval / composite

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Peter Fairweather, of Lincoln, England, for the information on, and image of this font. we are also grateful to Jonathan Plunkett for the photographs of this church taken by his father, George Plunkett, in 1936 and 1950

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There are three entries for this Yarmouth [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG5207/yarmouth/] [accessed 9 June 2014], one of which reports a church in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "Bishop Herbert then, being enjoined to build a church here, and considering the ease and advantage of the inhabitants, founded one near Fuller's Hill, which he dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron of fishermen; ecclesiam perillustrem (says Sir Henry) S. Nicolao dicatam, piscatorum vero ditatam oblationibus et dotatam; i. e. " A very famous church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, enriched and endowed with the offerings of the fishermen. [...] this church was founded by Herbert bishop of Norwich, about the year 1123. In 1251 it was dedicated, having been greatly enlarged the preceding year." The only mention of a font here in Blomefield (ibid.) is in relation to a visit of the vicar general in 1635: "The said year, the vicar general came to town, and ordered several alterations and reparations in the church", among which alterations was "That the font be beautified, and a rail made against it." Druery (1826), who states that the church of St. Nicholas is believed to date between 1093 and 1123, reports the presence in it of an ancient font: "at the west end of the nave, is a low door, now disused, opposite of which is the ancient font, which has an octagular base, with a modern top of wood". A description of the church in The Musical Times (1 August 1907) notes: "Among the objects of special interest, the bowl of the font is the oldest, having been in the church for 700 years." That font was probably destroyed, together with the interior of the church, by German bombs in 1942. The church re-opened in 1961and was provided with a font from the parish church of St. Peter's, in Highway, Wiltshire [cf. Index entry for Highway]. Noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1997), who identify the cover as "the tester of the pulpit" [i.e., the canopy or sounding board]. This is a baptismal font of a composite nature; the Norman basin is between hemispherical and cylindrical in shape, ornamented at the upper rim with a moulding below which is a band of scallop motif; around the underbowl is a series of foliage motifs in high relief; this basin is originally from the deserted village of Highway in Wiltshire; the base consists of two polygonal [dodecagonal?] volumes with an indentation towards the middle around which runs a moulding. The font appears now [2003] with a flat wooden cover reinforced with metal work; modern. [NB: there are several other fonts in the other parish churches of Yarmouth, but they are all modern (1700+) and of no particular interest]

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.611066, 1.727

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 36′ 39.84″ N, 1° 43′ 37.2″ E

UTM: 31U 413805 5829767

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Number of Pieces: three?

Font Shape: cylindrical (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern

Material: wood,

Apparatus: no

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

"Great Yarmouth and its Parish Church", August 1, 1907, The Musical Times, 1907, pp. 509-519; r["References"]

Blomefield, Francis, An essay towards a topographical history of Norfolk, 1805-1810

Buck, A.G. Randle, "Some Wiltshire fonts. Part II", LIV, CXCIV (June 1951), The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 1951, pp. 19-35; r["References"]

Druery, John Henry, Historical and topographical notices of Great Yarmouth [...], London: Nichols & Son, 1826

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East [2nd ed.], Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1997