Asheldam

INFORMATION

FontID: 11875ASH
Object Type: Stoup
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Laurence [converted to youth centre]
Church Patron Saints: St. Lawrence [aka Laurence]
Country Name: England
Location: Essex, East
Directions to Site: Located 6 km NNE of Burnham-on-Crouch, 14 km SE of Maldon, 26 km ESE of Chelmsford [Coordinates: 51° 40′ 27.12″ N, 0° 50′ 47.04″ E 51.6742, 0.8464]
Font Location in Church: In the nave, S doorway
Century and Period: 14th century, Medieval
Font Notes:
A holy-water stoup is noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "In nave--in splay of S. doorway, with trefoiled ogee head and round basin, 14th-century." [NB: he RCHM does not inventory a font in this church -the RCHM does not include pre-1714 objects, although the fabric of the church goes back at least to 14th century -- we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]. The Observer [colour supplement 1 January 1973} has a case study of this church as an example of church conversions; disused already in the late 1960s, became a youth centre in the early 1970s; the article in The Observer supplement (ibid.) reports a font, probably of the 19th century, still in the church at the time. A June 2007 report on this building by HUNTER Outdoor Training [http://www.huntertraining.zoomshare.com/8.html] [accessed 10 June 2010] shows the octagonal font inside the building at the time. Looking oddly out of place in the converted biulding.

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

REFERENCES

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, An Inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1916-1923