Auckland / Awkeland / West Auckland / St. Helen Auckland

INFORMATION

Font ID: 09851AUC
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century / 17th century, Transitional / Early English
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Helen
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Wikidata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Helen,_St_Helen_Auckland
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Helena
Site Location: Durham, North East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located 4 km SW of Bishop Auckland
Font Notes:
Billings (1846) reports a "font (plain but singular), of the same date as the nave" [i.e., late-Norman]. Noted in Fordyce (1857) remarks that "the church of St. Helen's Auckland is of high antiquity; the pillars and arches of the nave being of the late Norman style […] The font is coeval in date with the nave, of a singular shape, and without sculpture." Described in the Northumberland County Council 'Keys to the past' web site as a 13th-century baptismal font [source: www.keystothepast.info]. But Pevsner (1983) writes: "Font. Plain smooth circular bowl on a columnar pedestal; C17?"

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: round, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round

REFERENCES

  • Billings, Robert William, Illustrations of the architectural antiquities of the County of Durham: ecclesiastical, castellated, and domestic, Durham; London: Published by George Andrews, and the author; and also by T. and W. Boone [...], 1846, p. 15
  • Fordyce, William, The History and Antiquities of the county palatine of Durham; comprising a condensed account of its natural, civil, and ecclesiastical history […], Newcastle, London and Edinburgh: A. Fullarton and Co., 1857, vol. 1: p. 603
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, County Durham, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983, p. 396