Ashen

INFORMATION

Font ID: 09976ASH
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century, Perpendicular
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17535857
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Augustine of Canterbury
Site Location: Essex, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located 8 km ESE of Haverhill, 36 km N of Chelmsford [Coordinates: 52° 3′ 9.72″ N, 0° 32′ 38.76″ E 52.0527, 0.5441]
Additional Comments: recycled font / buried font: cf. FontNotes -- disappeared font? The earlier medieval font?
Font Notes:
Noted in the Royal Commission of Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: with plain octagonal bowl of oolite, stem of clunch, possibly 15th-century, much scraped." Listed in Stocker (1997) as one in a group of "font bowls buried in churchyard or adjacent vicarage garden". The Ashen Parish Council website [http://www.essexinfo.net/ashenparishcouncil/welcome-to-ashen-parish-counci/ashen-church/] [accessed 10 June 2010] informs: "The font was originally beautifully carved. The top dates from circa 1390. All this beautiful carving was cut off between 1649 and 1660 and the base smashed to pieces and buried. In 1857 when excavations were made in the Churchyard the broken pieces were discovered and reburied." [NB: the RCHM [cf. supra] notes also "Stoup: In porch--E. of S. doorway, traces, date uncertain" -- not listed separately in this Index]. [NB: the original church may be as early as the 12th or 13th century, but we have no information on the earlier medieval font]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, oolite (Barnack stone) [basin] - limestone (clunch) [base]
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

REFERENCES

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, An Inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1916-1923, vol. 1: 9, 10
  • Paul, W. Norman, Essex Fonts and Font Covers: Norman to Nineteenth Century, Baldock, Herts.: Egon Publishers, 1986, p. 32
  • Stocker, D.A., "Fons et origo: The Symbolic Death and Resurrection of English Font Stones", I (1997b), Church Archaeology, 1997, pp. 17-25; p. 25