Towednack / Tewuunek

Results: 3 records

LB01: design element - motifs - zigzag

note that this was a decoration on the underbowl of the old font [cf. Font notes]
Scene Description: note that this was a decoration on the underbowl of the old font [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Steve Beazley, 2005
Image Source: Digital image from Steve Beazley, of RootsWeb.com
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission to reproduce

view of font and cover in context

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Steve Beazley, 2005
Image Source: Digital image from Steve Beazley, of RootsWeb.com
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission to reproduce

INFORMATION

Font ID: 10961TOW
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 11th - 12th century [shafts and base only], Medieval / composite
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Tewennochus
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, W end, S side, by the door
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Tewennochus [aka Tewennoc, Tewennock, Towednack] [or is it St. Winwaloe, as suggested by O.J. Padel?]
Site Location: Cornwall, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located 4 km SW of St. Ives, W of Lelant, 10 km NE of Penzance
Additional Comments: recycled font: the old basin and stem serve now as base of the new font -- MUST USE
Font Notes:
Kelly's Directory of 1873 reports: "a curiously carved font, which bears the date 1720". Cox (1912) writes: "Masonry of N[orth] side of nave Norm[an]; shafts and base of font are of that period, but octagonal bowl is dated 1720." [NB: the shafts mentioned in Cox perhaps removed since?]. Noted in Pevsner (1970): "Font. Granite, octagonal, with faces at the corners, dated 1720. Its base is the inverted bowl of a Norman font." The composite baptismal font consists of an octagonal decorated with faces at the corners, vertical sides and a rounded underbowl; the base looks now like a plain cylindrical stem that splays out to a bell-shaped lower base decorated with zigzag at the top, but, as indicated by Pevsner, it is really the old Norman font turned upside-down; the zigzag is therefore the decoration of the underbowl of the old basin. The font has a flat octagonal cover with a knob handle/finial, and it is raised on a quadrangular plinth.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Steve Beazley, of RootsWeb.com, for his image of this font.

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, granite [basin only?]
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round [cf. FontNotes]
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

  • Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912, p. 230
  • Kelly, Kelly's Directory of Cornwall, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd., 1873, cited in [http://www.west-penwith.org.uk/towedk.htm] [accessed 25 Novemver 2009]
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970, p. 222