Stithians No. 2 / Stythians

INFORMATION

FontID: 09388STI
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Stythians
Church Patron Saints: St. Stythians [aka Stithians, Stedyana, Stedianus]
Country Name: England
Location: Cornwall, South West
Directions to Site: Village and parish in SW Cornwall, 8 km NW of Falmouth, off the A39 (west)
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 15th century, Perpendicular
Cognate Fonts: Other such in Cornwall at North Petherwyn, Pillaton and Stoke Climsland
Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts from the 14th and 15th century, that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins. Noted in Cox (1912). In Pevsner (1970): "Font. Plain, octagonal." [NB: the church itself dates to the 15th century; the font is probably of that same date]. Illustrated in A Snap in Time [http://www.caerkief.co.uk/Churches/Stithians.html] [accessed 23 November 2009]. The wooden font cover consists of a box-like octagonal base with an English inscription all around, and four vertical scroll-ribs around a centre pivot; dove finial; heavy and ugly; Victorian? [cf. Index entry for Stithians No. 1 for a fragment of a Bodmin-type font found in this church]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Date: 19th-century?
Material: wood,
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970
Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928