Kimmeridge / Cameric / Cunetiz
Image copyright © The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005
Standing permission
Results: 1 records
view of font and cover in context
Scene Description: looking west; the font on the south side, by the entrance
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005
Image Source: digital image in The Dorset Historic Churches Trust, 2005 [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 11325KIM
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [basin only], Medieval [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Kimmeridge
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end, S side, near the entrance
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Nicholas of Myra [former dedication unknown]
Church Notes: 12thC church; much modified and re-built
Church Address: 1 The Graylings, Kimmeridge, Wareham BH20 5PH, United Kingdom
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located W of the A351, 7 km S of Wareham
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury
Historical Region: Hundred of Hasler [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: recycled font / abandoned font / composite font
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are two entries for Himmeridge [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SY9179/kimmeridge/] [accessed 21 June 2025], neither of which mentions priest or church in it. Mee (1939) writes of the church at Kimmeridge: "Here the men of King John's day [i.e., John, king of England, 1167-1216] put a new font, which was lost later and found in a hedge. We were glad to hear that it would be back in its proper place as soon as alterations to the church were complete." Not mentioned in Newman & Pevsner (1972). The Dorset Historic Churches Trust notes the adventures of the font [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk/kimmeridge.htm]: "The font is interesting because according to the excellent church guide, the present one was discarded by the architect as being 'extremely ugly and utterly unsuitable for its purpose' [NB: the church underwent a Victorian re-building in 1872]. About 1920, two workmen digging a ditch found it [i.e., the basin of the old font] in a hedge and mounted [it] on a new pedestal. As an act of supreme irony, the Victorian version is thought to have become a bird-bath!"
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Robin Adeney and The Dorset Historic Churches Trust [www.dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk], for the photograph of this font
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: hemispheric, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: low-pyramidal shape
REFERENCES
- Mee, Arthur, The King's England. Dorset: Thomas Hardy's Country, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, p. 122