Marston Magna / Merstone
Image copyright © Marston Magna Parish, 2015
No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing [NB: page gives "MarstonMagnaChurch.org © 2015" at bottom -- it has also a "Terms of use" button but the link is broken]
Results: 9 records
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Marston Magna Parish, 2015
Image Source: edited detail of a digital image, Marston Magna Parish [https://marstonmagnaparish.co.uk/church/font-st-marys-marston-magna/] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing [NB: page gives "MarstonMagnaChurch.org © 2015" at bottom -- it has also a "Terms of use" button but the link is broken]
view of font and cover in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Marston Magna Parish, 2015
Image Source: digital image, Marston Magna Parish [https://marstonmagnaparish.co.uk/church/font-st-marys-marston-magna/] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing [NB: page gives "MarstonMagnaChurch.org © 2015" at bottom -- it has also a "Terms of use" button but the link is broken]
design element - motifs - scallop - trumpet scallop - decorated
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Marston Magna Parish, 2015
Image Source: edited detail of a digital image, Marston Magna Parish [https://marstonmagnaparish.co.uk/church/font-st-marys-marston-magna/] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing [NB: page gives "MarstonMagnaChurch.org © 2015" at bottom -- it has also a "Terms of use" button but the link is broken]
design element - motifs - beaded-tape
Scene Description: between the upper rim and the trumpet scallops
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Marston Magna Parish, 2015
Image Source: edited detail of a digital image, Marston Magna Parish [https://marstonmagnaparish.co.uk/church/font-st-marys-marston-magna/] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing [NB: page gives "MarstonMagnaChurch.org © 2015" at bottom -- it has also a "Terms of use" button but the link is broken]
design element - motifs - roll moulding
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Marston Magna Parish, 2015
Image Source: edited detail of a digital image, Marston Magna Parish [https://marstonmagnaparish.co.uk/church/font-st-marys-marston-magna/] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing [NB: page gives "MarstonMagnaChurch.org © 2015" at bottom -- it has also a "Terms of use" button but the link is broken]
design element - motifs - varied
Scene Description: the scallop ends are decorated with a variety of motifs, symbols (?), etc.; some are geometric, others vegetal, some perhaps animal?
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Marston Magna Parish, 2015
Image Source: edited detail of a digital image, Marston Magna Parish [https://marstonmagnaparish.co.uk/church/font-st-marys-marston-magna/] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing [NB: page gives "MarstonMagnaChurch.org © 2015" at bottom -- it has also a "Terms of use" button but the link is broken]
view of church exterior - northeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Neil Owen, 2016
Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2016 by Neil Owen [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4841382] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - northwest view
Scene Description: Source caption: "Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Marston Magna. The church contains traces of Saxon herringbone work and has a Norman font."
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Mike Searle, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 21 April 2007 by Mike Searle [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/409005] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © David Purchase, 2015
Image Source: digital photograph taken 21 April 2015 bt David Purchase [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4442062] [accessed 18 April 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
INFORMATION
Font ID: 09351MAR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Late Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: Sparkford Hill Ln, Marston Magna, Yeovil BA22 7HY, UK
Site Location: Somerset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (E) the A359, 10 km NNE of Yeovil, about the same distance NW of Sherborne
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bath & Wells
Historical Region: Hundred of Horethorne
Additional Comments: disappeared font? (the font from the 11thC church here? [cf. FontNotes])
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are two entries for Marston [Magna] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST5922/marston-magna/] [accessed 18 April 2018], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it, although there may have been an 11th-century church here [cf. VCH entry infra]. The National Gazetteer (1868) mentions an ancient font in this church. The Handbook for travellers… (1869) and Kelly's Directory of 1883 report a Norman font. Wade & Wade (1929) write: "The font has a fluted basin, and is doubtless Norm[an]". Noted in Pevsner (1958): "Circular, Norman, with decorated flutes or scallops. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 7, 1999) notes: "The church has traces of 11th-century masonry in its fabric [...] some re-set 11th-century work above the chancel arch", and mentions "an arcaded Norman font" in the present church. The entry for this church in Historic England [IoE Number: 262672] reports a "Norman lead-lined font with cylindrical base and decorated scallops" in it. The Parish site [http://marstonmagnachurch.org/marstonmagnachurch.org-4.html] [accessed 18 April 2018] illustrates the font and notes: "That a Saxon church existed on the site prior to the Norman Conquest is proved by the existence of two small pre - Norman stone window heads, built in on each side of the central arch. The remains of the Norman church are very distinct [...] Another complete feature of this period is the fine Norman font with scallop moulding round its sides. Standing on its original stem and base it is lined inside with the original lead." The basin is round and has a band of trumpet scallops decorated on the scallop part with foliage (?) motifs; the almost vertical down projection of the scallops forms a fluted pattern all around the basin sides, down to a thin moulding that demarcates the end of the basin and the beginning of the plain cylindrical stem of the base; the low splaying lower base is round but there is one more volume below which is square; raised on a modern quadrangular plinth. The low-dome cover appears modern.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 529511 5649755
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.998611, -2.579444
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 59′ 55″ N, 2° 34′ 46″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: round, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage Notes: lead-lined
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern?
Material: metal
Apparatus: no
Notes: low-dome metal cover with handle; appears modern
REFERENCES
- The National Gazetteer: a Topographical Dictionary of the British Isles, London: Virtue & Co., 1868, [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/MarstonMagna/] [accessed 27 March 2008]
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Kelly, Eric Robert, Kelly's Directory of Somersetshire with the city of Bristol, London: Kelly & Co., 1883, p. 258
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 377
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, South and West Somerset, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958, p. 231
- Wade, G.H., Somerset, London: Methurn & Co., 1929, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12287/12287-h/12287-h.htm] [accessed 26 March 2008]