Pembrey / Penbre / Penbrey

INFORMATION

FontID: 09123PEM
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Illtyd
Church Patron Saints: St. Illtyd [aka Illtud]
Country Name: Wales
Location: Carmarthenshire, Dyfed
Directions to Site: Located on the A484, just W of Burry Port, 7-8 km W of Llanelli
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 12th century, Norman
Workshop/Group/Artisan: North Devon workshop
Baker-Jones (1970) notes: ''In some churches along the coast there used to be many Norman fonts which had characteristics of their own and showed the advance of the invader into these parts . Thus in the churches of St . Mary, KidwelIy, Penbre, St . Ishmael's and Llanstephan the original fonts were of the square Norman type, having shallow bowls and ornamented with plain cushion capitals . The first three have disappeared but sketches of them still exist''. Listed by Peter Lord, in Diwylliant... (1998-2003, vol. 3: 80 and fn70) as one of about twenty square fonts produced by a north-Devon workshop [NB: Lord cites Robert Boak's unpublished research as source for the workshop identification]. The decoration consists chiefly of scallop and/or foliage motifs.

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: square (mounted)
Basin Exterior Shape: square

REFERENCES

The Visual Culture of Wales = Diwylliant gweledol Cymru, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1998-2003
Baker-Jones, D.L., "Looking at Carmarthenshire Churches", VII (1970), The Carmarthenshire Historian, 1970