Fontmell Magna No. 1 / Fontmel Magna / Great Fontmel
Image copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003
Standing permision
Results: 7 records
B01: design element - motifs - foliage scroll
Scene Description: deeply carved, all around the basin and underbowl sides
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003
Image Source: Image courtesy & copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003 [www.dorset-opc.com/FontmellMagna/]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
B02: animal - bird
Scene Description: deeply carved, among the foliage, all around the basin and underbowl sides
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003
Image Source: Image courtesy & copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003 [www.dorset-opc.com/FontmellMagna/]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font
Scene Description: Victorian font not in use
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003
Image Source: www.dorset-opc.com/FontmellMagna/
Copyright Instructions: Standing permision
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003
Image Source: Image courtesy & copyright © Lynda Mudle-Small, 2003 [www.dorset-opc.com/FontmellMagna/]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - detail
Scene Description: reproduction of the frieze on the façade
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: detail of an engraving from a drawing by J. Basire, in Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font and cover in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005
Image Source: digital image The Dorset Historic Churches, 2005 [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior
Scene Description: the enlarged detail is a reproduction of the frieze on the façade
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: engraving from a drawing by J. Basire, in Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874)
Copyright Instructions: PD
INFORMATION
Font ID: 10564FON
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 11th - 12th century, Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Andrew, Fontmell Magna
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Andrew
Church Address: 40 Church St, Fontmell Magna, Shaftesbury SP7 0NY, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1258 861576
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the A350, 8 km S of Shaftesbury, 13 km N of Blandford Forum
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury
Font Notes:
Click to view
Noted in the 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874): "The ancient font is very curious, apparently Norman. The circular bowl has a running scroll round it, issuing from the bills of birds." The Handbook for travellers… (1869) states: "the font is Norman". Noted in Long (1923): "round bowl with bands of foliage on it." Mee (1939) writes: "Standing by one font is another made by the Normans, rather battered but with birds and twining stems carved around it." In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Norman, of cauldron shape. The bowl has rather irregular trails and eight birds." Described in Stanier (2004) as one of several "carved Norman fonts of special quality". The Dorset OPC [on-line parish clerk] site [www.dorset-opc.com] informs: "The font is Norman, it is made from greensand and is carved in high relief with foliate scrolls and birds". The font consists of a roughly hemispherical basin decorated with high-relief foliage motifs, raised on a cylindrical pedestal with roll mouldings at each end; the lower base and the plinth appear modern, as does the flat wooden cover. The Dorset OPC site illustrates both this font and a Victorian font no longer in use [NB: the latter is not listed separately in this Index]. [NB: a third bowl in this church, old, as well as damaged, is noted and illustrated in The Dorset Historic Churches Trust [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk/fontellmagna.htm]: "In a corner, below a most attrative stained glass window, rests the remains of a font thought to be at least a thousand years old." [NB: as Bond (1908) noted throughout his work, one should not equate crudeness of workmanship with ancient pedigree -- the bowl in question could very well be ancient, but hardly of the 10th century] [cf. Index entry for Fontmell Magna No. 2 for the old damaged bowl, and for Fontmell Magna No. 3 for the Victorian disused font still kept in this same church]. [We are grateful to Lynda Mudle-Small for the photographs of this font]
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Lynda Mudle-Small for the photographs of this font.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 556770 5644742
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.9515, -2.1918
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 57′ 5.4″ N, 2° 11′ 30.48″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: hemispheric, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: flat and plain
REFERENCES
- Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Wakefield: E.P. Pub. Ltd., 1973, vol. 3: 559 and pl. on opp. p.
- Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; p. 68, 75
- Mee, Arthur, The King's England. Dorset: Thomas Hardy's Country, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, p. 104
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 243 / [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, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 208
- Stanier, Peter, Dorset's archaeology: archaeology in the landscape, 4000BC to AD1700, Tiverton: Dorset Books, 2004, p. 139