Ashwell / Aescwelle / Asceuuelle / Ascewelle / Assewell / Asshewell / Esceuuelle / Escewelle / Eswell

Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

Results: 17 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

B01: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - Christ - the instruments of the Passion - hammer

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

B02: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - Christ - the instruments of the Passion - lance, sponge

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

B03: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - the instruments of the Passion - ladder

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

B04: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - Instrumentos of the Passion - dice?

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

B05: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - Instrumentos of the Passion - seamless robe

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

B06: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - the instruments of the Passion - crown of thorns

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

B07: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - the instruments of the Passion - Cross

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

B08: symbol - shield - in a quatrefoil - the instruments of the Passion - nails

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

design element - motifs - S in a circle - 2 - up-and-down

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

design element - motifs - saltire

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 21 June 2011 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2474376] [accessed 14 July 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph taken 4 February 2013 by Alexander P Kapp [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3324222] [accessed 15 July 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Image Source: digital photograph taken 4 February 2013 by Alexander P Kapp [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3324216] [accessed 15 July 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

view of font and cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph taken by Colin Hinson [www.yorkshireCDbooks.com]

Copyright Instructions: Photograph and Permission received (10 July 2005)

INFORMATION

FontID: 10944ASH

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: Ashwell, Hertfordshire, SG7 5QQ

Country Name: England

Location: Hertfordshire, East

Directions to Site: Located off (E) the A1, 5-6 km NNE of Letchworth

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St. Albans [formerly in the diocese of Westminster and London]

Historical Region: Hundred of Odsey [in Domesday]

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave

Century and Period: 15th - 16th century/ 19th century, Perpendicular? / Victorian?

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Hinson, of www.yorkshireCDbooks.com, for his photographs of this font.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There are four entries for this Ashwell [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL2639/ashwell/] [accessed 15 July 2015], one of which mentions a priest, but not a church in it, though there ptobably was there. Baptismal font consisting of an octagonal basin with a graded underbowl, raised on an octagonal pedestal base and an octagonal plinth with 'priest's stone' extension; the sides of the basin are deeply carved with two types of quatrefoils into which are set shields bearing the Instruments of the Passion [L->R: 1)hammer; 2)lance & sponge; 3)ladder; 4)dice?; 5)seamless shirt; 6)crown of thorn; 7)cross; 8)nails]; the sides of the pedestal base are decorated with tracery motifs, alternating a saltire with two Gothic S motifs in a one-up-one-down arrangement; the pyramidal wooden cover, probably Victorian, is decorated with tracery motifs and cusped arrises on the eight sides. Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Hertforshire (1911): "Font: modern, steps probably 14th-century". The Victoria County History (Hertford, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The record of a priest among the tenants of the Abbot of Westminster in 1086 implies the existence of a church there at that date. [...] The nave is the earliest portion of the church, the first four bays from the east, together with the clearstory and chancel arch, belong to the middle of the 14th century; the chancel, west tower and western bay of the nave, together with the side aisles, were constructed some thirty years later. The south porch was built about 1420 and the north porch about the middle of the 15th century. [...] The font is modern, but the steps appear to be original."

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 52.042015, -0.152622

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 52° 2′ 31.25″ N, 0° 9′ 9.44″ W

UTM: 30U 695271 5769538

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Date: Victorian? / 19th century?

Material: wood, oak

Apparatus: no

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2016-10-19 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Hertfordshire, London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationary Office by J. Truscott, 1911