Bampton No. 1 / Bentone

Results: 2 records

view of church exterior

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Bates, 2005
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 December 2005 by Colin Bates [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/91740] [accessed 29 July 2014]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

INFORMATION

Font ID: 11056BAM
Object Type: Baptismal Font1, basin only?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th - 13th century [basin only], Medieval
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Font Location in Church: [disappeared -- cf. FontNotes]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: Church View, Bampton, Oxfordshire OX18 2LZ
Site Location: Oxfordshire, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on the B4449, 20 km WSW of Oxford
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Historical Region: Hundred of Bampton
Additional Comments: disappeared font / recycled font: old Norman basin replaced with a new one in 1847 [whereabouts not stated] / but the base was obviously lost since the one we now of is 14th-century MUST USE -- disappeared font? (the one from the pre-Conquest minster church here [church noted in the VCH entry])
Font Notes:
There are four entries for this Bampton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP3103/bampton/] [accessed 29 July 2014], but neither of then report priest or church in it. The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850) notes: "The font is square E[arly] E[nglish]". Noted in the Victoria County History (Oxfordshire, 1996) as "a square, 12th-century bowl with round-headed blind arcading" that was replaced by a 19th-century one in 1847. The old basin must have been the original from the 12th-century Norman church. [cf. Index entry for Bampton No. 2 for the composite font now in service in this church]. Carol Harmond informs BSI [e-mail of 14 Sept. 2006] that there is a 1821 drawing of the 13th-century font by J.C. Buckler [Bodleian Library, MS Top. Oxon.a 65, No. 56]; the drawing shows the present base in an inverted position]. [We are grateful to Carol Harmond (nee Baston), of www.bastonfamily.co.uk, for the information on this font]. The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/ox/bampt/index.htm] [accessed 18 June 2007] notes: "Now lost, but known from a drawing by J. C.Buckler in 1821 (Bodleian Library, MS Top. Oxon.a 65, No.56). It stood on an early 14thc. base, shown inverted in the drawing, which survives supporting the present Victorian font. Square, but with the interior of the bowl round. On each face, plain round-headed blind arcading in five bays. Although there is no evidence for the material, this looks like one of the earlier types of standard Purbeck marble font. Dimensions (These dimensions are calculated from the Buckler drawing in conjunction with the surviving late medieval plinth, and are very approximate.) h. of bowl approx 0.30 m / w. of bowl approx. 0.80 m".
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Carol Harmond (nee Baston), of www.bastonfamily.co.uk, for the information on this font.

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 600166 5731732
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.727555, -1.549674
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 43′ 39.2″ N, 1° 32′ 58.82″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)?
Number of Pieces: one
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Height of Basin Side: 30 cm?*
Trapezoidal Basin: 80 x 80 cm?*
Notes on Measurements: * [estimated measurements in The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/ox/bampt/index.htm] [accessed 18 June 2007] [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

  • The Victoria History of the Counties of England: A History of the County of Oxford, London: VCH, [1990-1996?], vol. XIII: p. 48-57
  • Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
  • Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
  • Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England: Oxfordshire, Oxford, London: Published under the sanction of the Central Commitee of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland [by] John Henry Parker, 1850, [unpaged -- entry 178] / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=maikb1i3wSUC&pg=PT144&lpg=PT144&dq=longcot+church+font&source=web&ots=p3k5tJJE6J&sig=KYjkm8H5wOoAuH7BvnLp7JqMPus&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA17,M1] [accessed 31 December 2008]