Sixpenny Handley / Handley

CC-BY-SA-2.5

Results: 13 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches - 16 arches

Scene Description: east side of the font

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of basin - interior

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - looking east

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - looking west

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font - east side

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font - north side

Scene Description: showing damage, iron staples and missing colonnette

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font - plan, elevation, section and sketch

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font - west side

Scene Description: showing damage, iron staples and missing colonnette

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Scene Description: Source caption: "Font, Church of St Mary the Virgin, Sixpenny Handley. The late-Norman, Purbeck marble font is under the bell tower."

Image Source: digital photograph 22 June 2008 by Maigheach-gheal [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/854901] [accessed 13 February 2023]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5

view of font and cover in context

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font cover

Scene Description: showing the carved top and the four knob handles

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font cover

Image Source: digital photograph in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

FontID: 11385HAN

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Mary [originally a chantry]

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: 60 High St, Sixpenny Handley, Salisbury SP5 5ND, United Kingdom

Country Name: England

Location: Dorset, South West

Directions to Site: Located on the B3081, about 15 km SE of Shaftesbury

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

Century and Period: 12th century, Late Norman

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Purbeck Marblers Guild

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Gerald Duke, of www.martinstown.co.uk, for the information on, and photographs of this font.

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

Noted in the 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874): "The font is of Norman character, composed of a square bowl of Purbeck marble, having four shallow semicircular arches sculptured on each face, and a massive central circular stem, and there was originally a small circular pillar at each angle." Listed in Long (1923) as a baptismal font perhaps of the Norman period. In Mee (1939): "The font must be 700 years old." In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Of the C12 Purbeck type. Square, with four flat blank arches to each side. Five supports." Described and illustrated in Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]. The font consists of a square basin with tapering sides, each adorned with a shallow-carved set of four round arches; raised on a broad central shaft and three [cf. supra] slender colonnettes at the angles; square lower base. The font is in very poor state of repair, showing significant damage in several areas of the basin, and several large cracks that have been mended with large iron staples; as indicated above, one of the outer colonnettes has been missing for at least 150 years. The oak font cover is octagonal, probably of the 17th century, and has two pairs of knobs at opposite sides on the upper surface to be used as handles to help in the lifting the lid on and off the font [NB: the upper rim of the basin shows evidence of the plugs from the earlier font cover]. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: ST9955617304] notes: "Parish church, chancel early C14, tower C14 but rebuilt, porch C14, chancel door 1721, remainder of church 1877"; no font mentioned in it. Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble; no details [source given: Dr. G. Dru Drury].

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 50° 57′ 19″ N, 2° 00′ 29″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone [Purbeck marble]

Font Shape: square (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: square

Drainage Notes: lead lining

Rim Thickness: 8 cm*

Diameter (inside rim): 59 cm*

Diameter (includes rim): 75 cm*

Basin Depth: 30 cm*

Basin Total Height: 39 cm*

Height of Base: 44 cm*

Font Height (less Plinth): 83 cm* [98 cm with the lower base]

Notes on Measurements: * Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]

LID INFORMATION

Date: 17th century?

Material: wood, oak

Apparatus: no

Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1970

Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Wakefield: E.P. Pub. Ltd., 1973

Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975

Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; r["References"]

Mee, Arthur, The King's England. Dorset: Thomas Hardy's Country, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972