Frome nr. Bath No. 2

Image copyright © Judith White, 2004
Permission received (e-mail of 28 August 2004)
Results: 3 records
LB01: design element - motifs - moulding
view of church exterior
INFORMATION
FontID: 10012FRO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. John and St. Mary
Church Patron Saints: St. John & St. Mary
Church Location: Church St, Frome BA11 1PL, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1373 462325
Country Name: England
Location: Somerset, South West
Directions to Site: Located off local road B3090, about 20 km SSE of Bath
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Century and Period: 13th - 14th century [restored?], Medieval [altered]
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Judith White for the photographs of this site.
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are two entries for this Frome in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/ST7747/frome/] [accessed 22 August 2022], one of which mentions "1 church. 8.0 church lands" in it. The Handbook for travellers… (1869) reports: "The font is a portion of the old font restored". Is that the present font? Described in Pevsner (1958): "C13 type, quatrefoil with four shafts; if original, completely retooled." Baptismal font probably of the 13th or 14th century consisting of a cylindrical (?) basin with round bulging protrusions at the angles that make it roughly square in general shape; it is raised on a central shaft and four outer colonnettes, these with moulded capitals and bases of the same stone as the basin but the stems are made of marble (caps are rounded, bases octagonal); raised on an octagonal plinth; tall and higly ornate font cover, square to match the shape of the font at the bottom, with a crocketed pyramid above [NB: not seen in person or documented -- could it be the old font restored or re-tooled, as noted in Pevsner [cf. supra], in the Victorian period?].
COORDINATES
Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.23, -2.320556
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 13′ 48″ N, 2° 19′ 14″ W
UTM: 30U 547440 5675622
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: cylindrical (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
LID INFORMATION
Date: 16th-17h century? / Victorian?
Material: wood
Apparatus: yes (pulley or counterweight?)
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
REFERENCES
Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869
Pevsner, Nikolaus, North Somerset and Bristol, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958