Copford / Copeforde
Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2012
Standing permission
Results: 7 records
view of font
Scene Description: the old basin on its modern base
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=Copford] [accessed 17 April 2012]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches
Scene Description: unfinished on one side [cf. FontNotes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=Copford] [accessed 17 April 2012]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=Copford] [accessed 17 April 2012]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - nave - looking west
Scene Description: with the font by the west wall
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=Copford] [accessed 17 April 2012]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - chancel - rood-screen, choir-screen; iconostasis
Scene Description: and view of the west end of the nave
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=Copford] [accessed 17 April 2012]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - nave - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Whitworth, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken by John Whitworth [www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=Copford] [accessed 17 April 2012]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - painting
Scene Description: detail of the apse
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Simon Knott, 2011
Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 May 2011 by Simon Knott [www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/5753774635/] [accessed 17 April 2012]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 11638COP
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1200?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century (late?) [basin only] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Michael & All Angels [earlier dedicated to St. Mary]
Church Notes: famous church paintings of ca. 1120 inside the church: "Wall paintings of c. 1120 were discovered under whitewash at Copford in 1690-1 during restoration by the parishioners, and described as 'very fair and fresh paintings of Christ upon the Cross, of St. Peter's motherinlaw lying sick of a fever, of St. Mary Magdalen, and other representations, which were all whited over again, but not defaced'. (fn. 79) In 1871 the whitewash was removed from the interior of the apse; in 1872, the paintings uncovered there were restored by Daniel Bell who 'added and supplied what was necessary'. (fn. 80) The nave paintings were restored in 1879, and all of the paintings were restored in 1931-2 by E. W. Tristram, in 1963-4 by Eve Baker, and between 1990 and 1993 by Wolfgang Gärtner" -- "The church, known as ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS' since 1880, earlier ST. MARY THE VIRGIN,"[source: VCH entry]
Church Address: Church Rd/Aldercar Rd, Copford, Essex, CO6 1DG, United Kingdom
Site Location: Essex, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located 4 km WSW of Colchester, just W of the Colchester Zoo and the B1022
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Chelmsford
Historical Region: Hundred of Lexden
Additional Comments: recycled font: unifinished font [cf. FontNotes] the stem is modern [e-mail sent to Friends of Copford Parish for image etc (10 April 2006) -- never replied]
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for Copford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL9322/copford/] [accessed 14 June 2018], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923) reports: "Font: square bowl of Purbeck marble, each face with four round-headed panels but on one side the panels are unfinished, late 12th-century, stem modern." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Of the usual square Purbeck type of c.1200, with four shallow blank arches on each side." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add: "Marble base, 1878, by Ebbetts & Cobb, made by Cox & Sons." The Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 10, 2001) notes: "Architectural evidence indicates that Copford church had been founded by c. 1100. [...] The foundations of what appears to be an Anglo Saxon structure have been detected to the southeast of the church. [...] The present church, which probably served as a chapel for the adjacent episcopal manor house, [...] consists of an apse, chancel with vestry, nave with threebayed south aisle, south porch, and timber belfry with spire. [...] The apse, chancel, nave, and central bay of the aisle were built as a single structure c. 1120"; the VCH entry describes the font as "a late 12th-century square bowl and modern base". Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "bowl with four panels on each face, although on one side they are unfinished; the stem is modern" [source given: RCHM (C&SW), 1921].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Whitworth, of www.essexchurches.info, for his photographs of this church, and to Simon Knott, of Suffolk and Norfolk Churches, for his photograph of the interior paintings
COORDINATES
UTM: 31U 348834 5750112
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: square
REFERENCES
- Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
- Bettley, James, Essex, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007, p. 306
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, An Inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1916-1923, vol. 3: 77
- Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975, p. 71
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Essex, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976, p. 150