Cruisetown / Cuicetown

INFORMATION

FontID: 09220CRU
Church/Chapel: Old manor church
Country Name: Republic of Ireland
Location: Meath / An Mhí, Leinster
Directions to Site: The church stands on a hilltop, about 2 miles [3.5 km] SW of Nobber
Font Location in Church: In the old church belonging to the Cruises' manor house
Century and Period: 12th - 16th century, Medieval
Described in Roe (1968: 111-112) as a possibly medieval baptismal font located in the old church belonging to the Cruises' manor house. The bowl is octagonal with four wide and four narrow sides, "tapering slightly from top to bottom"; the well is "oval rather than round" and has a central drain; it is raised on a "coarsely worked almost cylindrical block to which it has been cemented though the two parts do not appear to belong together". Roe (ibid.) comments that "the whole presents so poor and ungainly an appearance the it is difficult to accept it as the font proper of the manor church so great and wealthy a family as the Cruises".

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Number of Pieces: two
Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: oval
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Rim Thickness: 6.5 cm
Diameter (inside rim): 40.3 x 30.6 cm [oval]
Diameter (includes rim): [58.3 x 43.6 cm -- calculated]
Basin Depth: 15 cm
Height of Basin Side: 30.4 cm
Height of Base: 20.5 cm
Basin Upper Panel Dimensions: 30.4 cm tapering to 20.4 [wide panels] -- 10 cm tapering to 7.5 cm [narroe panels]
Font Height (less Plinth): 50.9 [calculated]
Square Base Dimensions: *[147 cm in diameter]
Notes on Measurements: Roe (1968: 112) *[Roe gives this measurement as "circumference 1.47 cm -- we have assumed that she meant 147 cm, i.e., 1.47 m in circumference for the drum base]

REFERENCES

Roe, Helen M., Medieval Fonts of Meath, Longford, Ireland: Meath Archaeological and Historical Society, 1968