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 font and cover in context
INFORMATION
Font ID: 10012FRO
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th - 14th century [restored?], Medieval [altered]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. John and St. Mary
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. John & St. Mary
Church Address: Church St, Frome BA11 1PL, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1373 462325
Site Location: Somerset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off local road B3090, about 20 km SSE of Bath
Additional Comments: restored font? (the present one) -- disappeared one? (the one from the Domesday-time church here)
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?].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Judith White for the photographs of this site.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 547440 5675622
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.23, -2.320556
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 13′ 48″ N, 2° 19′ 14″ W
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, p. 369 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hYEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=hemyock+church+font&source=bl&ots=wV68KRXFhH&sig=_-CnLgSLeYKjq8YBQMsxSQrjbvA&hl=en&ei=1IKRSeTLOojKNO3c_YkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA161,M1] [accessed 10 February 2009]
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, North Somerset and Bristol, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958, p. 196