Fore No. 1
Image copyright © Retro Stu, 2010
PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
Results: 4 records
B01:
design element - motifs - moulding - 4 (human heads?)
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Retro Stu, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 22 April 2010 by Retro Stu [http://www.flickr.com/photos/23885771@N03/4575844713/] [accessed 16 July 2010]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
UB01:
design element - motifs - piping - 4 (columns?)
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Retro Stu, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 22 April 2010 by Retro Stu [http://www.flickr.com/photos/23885771@N03/4575844713/] [accessed 16 July 2010]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Roe, 1968
Image Source: Roe (1968: pl. XLIV)
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of font in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Retro Stu, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 22 April 2010 by Retro Stu [http://www.flickr.com/photos/23885771@N03/4575844713/] [accessed 16 July 2010]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
FontID: 09231FOR
Church/Chapel: Church of St. Fechin [in ruins]
Church Patron Saints: St. Fechin [aka Féchín of Fore, Féichín, Mo-Ecca]
Country Name: Republic of Ireland
Location: Westmeath / Iarmhí, Leinster
Directions to Site: Located 5-6 km E of Castlepollard, just off (S) the R395 [the church of St. Fechin is outside the walls of Fore, not far from one of the gates]
Font Location in Church: Still in the ruins of the church, at the NW end, on 22 Aoril 2010
Century and Period: 13th century / 17th century, Medieval? / Restoration?
Described and illustrated in Roe (1968: 8, 117-118 and pl. XLIV): medieval baptismal font located in the ruins of the Church of St. Fechin, in the northwest end, "an unusually shaped vessel formed as a large convex bowl on a massive rectangular columnar shaft, rising from a square chamfered base". Roe (ibid.) describes the odd bulges or ribs at 90-degree angles both on the basin sides and on the shaft of the base, and believes that the oval extensions or "bosses were once carved as human faces (those of the Four Evangelists?)", but admits that "the cruelly worn and deteriorated state of the stone makes it impossible to be sure", and includes this font among the plain ones in her book. Speculating on the possibility of the "bosses" being human heads, Roe (ibid.) suggests it could be "a work of the earlier 13th century, one of the earliest datable fonts of the Diocese of Meath", a date that corresponds approximately to the time when the original church was enlarged. Roe (ibid.) notes an interesting detail, that "the original lead lining of the drain still extends from bowl to gound", not a very common survival, especially in the case of the much abandoned Irish fonts. [cf. Index entry for Fore No. 2 for a doubtful vessel in the Church of St. Mary, also in Fore]
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material:
stone
Number of Pieces: two?
Font Shape: hemispheric (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round (with heads?)
Drainage Notes: the whole original lead lining pipe leading all the way to the ground has been preserved
Rim Thickness: 9 cm
Diameter (inside rim): 48.2 cm
Diameter (includes rim): 68.7 cm
Basin Depth: 28 cm
Basin Total Height: 40.6 cm
Height of Central Column: 38.1 cm
Font Height (less Plinth): 93.3 cm [calculated]
Square Base Dimensions: 40.6 cm (wide); 14.6 cm (heigh: 8.2 + 6.4)
Notes on Measurements: Roe (1968: 117-118)
REFERENCES
II, Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, 1893, pp. 373; r["References"]
Leask, Harold G., Fore, Co. Westmeath, [Dublin]: Dublin Stationary Office, [s.d.]
Roe, Helen M., Medieval Fonts of Meath, Longford, Ireland: Meath Archaeological and Historical Society, 1968
