Niton No. 2 / Crab Niton / Crip Niton / Neeton / Neighton / Neuton / Newton Regis / Nyton

INFORMATION

Font ID: 10443NIT
Object Type: Baptismal Font1?
Font Century and Period/Style: [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. John the Baptist
Font Location in Church: [Reported in the churchyard ca. 1848 and again ca. 1868]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. John the Baptist
Church Address: Church St / Pan Ln, Niton, Isle of Wight PO38 2BS, UK -- Tel.: +44 1983 731922
Site Location: Isle of Wight, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located in the southernmost area of the island, in Binnel Bay, near St. Catherine's Point
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Portsmouth
Historical Region: Hundred of East Medine / Hundred of Bowcombe [in Domesday] -- formerly Hampshire
Additional Comments: recycled font: made of an ancient cross? -- abandoned font: in the churchyard ca. 1868
Font Notes:
There is a multiple-place entry for Niton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SZ5076/niton/] [accessed 14 February 2020] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports: "The church is a very ancient structure; on the south side, without the wall of the cemetery, was formerly a cross raised upon steps, with a basin on the top, supposed to have been a font." The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) [transcription by Colin Hinson, 2003] writes: "Close to the churchyard are the ruins of an ancient cross, which was once raised upon steps, and had a basin on the top, supposed to have been used as a baptismal font". [cf. Index entry for Niton No. 2 for a Norman font in this locality]

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 621222 5605447
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.588333, -1.2875
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 35′ 18″ N, 1° 17′ 15″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

REFERENCES

  • The National Gazetteer: a Topographical Dictionary of the British Isles, London: Virtue & Co., 1868, [unavailable]
  • Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831, [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51181] [accessed 21 February 2007]