Scarcliffe / Scarcliff

INFORMATION

FontID: 11599SCA
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Leonard
Church Patron Saints: St. Leonard
Country Name: England
Location: Derbyshire, East Midlands
Directions to Site: Located on the B6417, 3 km SSE from Bolsover, near the Notts. Border
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end, under the W gallery
Century and Period: , Medieval [altered]
Described in Cox (1875): "The font, under the west gallery, is of a plain octagonal shape, free from any ornament. The font itself, without the base, now measures nineteen inches deep by twenty in diameter, but it has lately been sensibly reduced in size, when being re-cleansed, preparatory to occupying its original position. Its fate for many a long year was to act as a support to one end of the lady's effigy in the chancel; but its temporary successor, a basin mounted on a pilaster, now lies dispointed amidst dirt and refuse at the bottom of the tower. The font is surmounted by a pointed cover of oak, with the year 1688 carved on one of the panels." Only the cover is noted in Pevsner (1978), without a mention of the font itself. [NB: the fabric of the church goes back to Norman times, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Diameter (includes rim): 50 cm*
Basin Total Height: 47.5 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * [in inches in Cox (1875), who reports a reduction in the size of the font]

LID INFORMATION

Date: 1688
Material: wood, oak
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

Cox, John Charles, 1875-1877
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Derbyshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1978