Chearsley / Cercelai / Cerdeslai / Cerdicesleah (?) / Cerleslai / Chaddesle / Chardesle Velence / Chardeslie / Chardislee Molyns / Cheardesley / Chersey / Chersley
Image copyright © Ken Goodearl, 2007
Permission received (e-mail of 29 Oct 2007)
Results: 6 records
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Ken Goodearl, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 29 Oct 2007)
design element - motifs - leaf - trefoiled - clover?
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Ken Goodearl, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 29 Oct 2007)
design element - motifs - rope moulding
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Ken Goodearl, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 29 Oct 2007)
design element - patterns - fluted
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Ken Goodearl, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 29 Oct 2007)
view of church exterior - northwest view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Ken Goodearl, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 29 Oct 2007)
design element - motifs - moulding
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Ken Goodearl, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph by Ken Goodearl, 2007 [http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury] [accessed 30 October 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (e-mail of 29 Oct 2007)
INFORMATION
Font ID: 10311CHE
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century (early?) [basin only] -- 15th century [base only] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Aylesbury group
Cognate Fonts: the basin is similar to the one at Buckland, but the leaf motifs similar to the ones on the font at Saunderton(e)
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Nicholas
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end, by the blocked N doorway
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra
Church Address: Church Lane, Chearsley, Buckinghamshire HP18 0DF
Site Location: Buckinghamshire, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the A418, 6-7 km NNE of Thame (Oxon.), 12-13 km WSW of Aylesbury (dir. Thame)
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Historical Region: Hundred of Ashendon
Additional Comments: altered font / composite font (13thC basin on a 15thC base) -- disappeared font? (the one from the 12thC church here)
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are two entries for Chearsley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP7110/chearsley/] [accessed 3 December 2015], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Lipscomb (1831- ) writes: "The font, which is large and circular, is on the north side of the nave, supported by an octagon column on a circular plinth, and having a border of trefoils encircling the verge, which is ornamented with foliage." In Sheahan (1862), after Lipscomb. In the RCAHM (Buckinghamshire, 1912): "Font: cup-shape bowl, with fluted scallops, band of stiff foliage at the top, rim cable-moulded, early 13th-century, octagonal stem and moulded base, probably 15th-century." The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 4, 1827) notes: "The church of Chearsley, anciently a chapel to Crendon, formed part of the original endowment of the abbey of Nutley, founded in the early 12th century by Walter Giffard. [...] The nave dates from about 1300, the tower from the early part of the 15th century, and the chancel, which was probably erected at the same time as the nave, was rebuilt about 1480"; the font, however, notes the VCH (ibid.), "has an early 13th-century circular bowl, with a cable mould round the rim and a band of foliated ornament; it stands upon a later octagonal stem and moulded base." Described in Pevsner (1960): "Font of cauldron shape, Norman. The lower part of the bowl fluted, above a frieze of upright three-lobed leaves." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015), which notes that, although of the Aylesbury group, this font is "less proficiently carved and not by the same workshop as the main group. It may be compared with the examples at Buckland and Saunderton." The basin is somewhat similar to the one in Buckland, although this one has a rope moulding at the upper rim; the base, of later date as identified in the RCAHM [cf. supra], consists of a plain octagonal stem raised on a splaying circular base with moulding and incised circle on the upper section. [NB: it may the case that these basins were made without corresponding bases, the latter being added from other workshops or from locally based masons, as with some Tournai fonts in England].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Ken Goodearl, of [www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/aylesburyfont_pics.htm#aylesbury], for his photographs of church and font.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 640902 5739282
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.786642, -0.95715
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 47′ 11.91″ N, 0° 57′ 25.74″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: hemispheric, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage Notes: lead-lined
Rim Thickness: 9 cm [calculated]
Diameter (inside rim): 48 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 66 cm*
Basin Total Height: 43 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 96 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * CRSBI (2008)
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern?
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: low-dome and round, with knob finial; appears modern; old staples remain from the earlier cover
REFERENCES
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of the historical monuments in Buckinghamshire, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1912-, vol. 1: 87
- Lipscomb, George, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, London: J.B. Nichols, 1831-1843, vol. 1: 124
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Buckinghamshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960, p. 19, 84
- Sheahan, James Joseph, History and topography of Buckinghamshire, comprising a general survey of the county, preceded by an epitome of the early history of Great Britain, London; Pontefract: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts; William Edward Bonas [...], 1862, p. 348