Kempsey / Chemesege / Kemeseg / Kemesege / Kemesel

Image copyright © Andy Morrall, 1999

Permission received (email of 10 January 2005)

Results: 3 records

view of church exterior - southeast view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Park, 2012

Image Source: digital photograph taken 13 September 2012 by Colin Park [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3287953] [accessed 25 September 2014]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior in context - southwest view

Scene Description: Source caption: "St Mary's church, Kempsey, viewed from the banks of the River Severn" EXT SE digital photograph taken 13 September 2012 by Colin Park [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3287953] [accessed 25 September 2014]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Halling, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 January 2011 by Philip Halling [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2243704] [accessed 25 September 204]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Scene Description: themodern, mid-19th century, font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andy Morrall, 1999

Image Source: www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/5386/htm

Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 10 January 2005)

INFORMATION

FontID: 10487KEM
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin
Church Location: Lane's End, Church Street, Kempsey, Worcestershire, WR5 3JH
Country Name: England
Location: Worcestershire, West Midlands
Directions to Site: Located on the A38, 4-5 km S of Worcester
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Worcester
Historical Region: Hundred of Oswaldslow
Century and Period: 11th century, Pre-Conquest? / Norman
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Andy Morrall for his photograph of this font.
There is an entry for Kempsey [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SO8549/kempsey/] [accessed 25 September 2014]; it reports a priest but does not mention a church in it, though there probably was one there. Miller (1890) gives the first recorded vicar here as "Manricius de Tapenhall ... 1269" and an east window of the 13th century in the church here, but mentions no font in it. The Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 3, 1913) notes: "There was a priest at Kempsey at the time of the Domesday Survey. [...] The advowson belonged to the bishopric of Worcester. [...] the present building has been developed from an aisleless cruciform church of the 12th century"; there is no mention of a font in the VCH, except for the one originally from Pershore Abbey. The modern font is noted in Brooks & Pevsner (2007): "Font, octagonal with Gothic lettering, of 1852." "The baptismal stone font was presented to the church by Robert Nuttall in 1852" [source: Andrew Morrall, www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/5386/htm]. The font consists of an octagonal basin raised on a plain stem and moulded lower base, both octagonal as well; there is an inscription in Gothic lettering running through the sides of the basin [cf. BSI entry for a Norman baptismal font at Pershore Abbey nearby]. The Parish web site [www.stmaryskempsey.org.uk/about_stmarys.html] [accessed 15 September 2011] states the church building dates from the 12th century [NB: we have no information on the original font of this parish church].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.139535, -2.222635
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 8′ 22.33″ N, 2° 13′ 21.49″ W
UTM: 30U 553200 5776843

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2011-09-15 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Brooks, Alan, Worcestershire, New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2007
Miller, George [Revd.], The Parishes of the Diocese of Worcester, Birmingham: Hall & English, 1890