Croston

Image copyright © Tony Boughen, 2006

No known coyright restriction / Fair Dealing

Results: 5 records

Inscription - date - 1663

Scene Description: in the sixth [west?] panel on the basin sides

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The Three Churches, 2018

Image Source: undated digital photograph in The Three Churches [http://the3churches.org.uk/croston-st-michaels/] [accessed 12 March 2019]

Copyright Instructions: No known coyright restriction / Fair Dealing

design element - motifs - quatrefoil - in a circle - in a square - 5

Scene Description: five of the panels of the basin are similar, but the motif inscribed in the quatrefoil varies

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Tony Boughen, 2006

Image Source: digital photograph by Tony Boughen in Lancashire Churches [www.lancashirechurches.co.uk/croston.htm] [accessed 17 September 2006]

Copyright Instructions: No known coyright restriction / Fair Dealing

view of church exterior - southeast view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Platt, 2011

Image Source: digital photograph taken 3 June 2011 by Philip Platt [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2440120] [accessed 12 March 2019]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior in context

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Alexamder P Kapp, 2008

Image Source: digital photograph taken 26 August 2008 by Alexander P Kapp [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/940468] [accessed 12 March 2019]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Tony Boughen, 2006

Image Source: digital photograph by Tony Boughen in Lancashire Churches [www.lancashirechurches.co.uk/croston.htm] [accessed 17 September 2006]

Copyright Instructions: No known coyright restriction / Fair Dealing

INFORMATION

FontID: 12160CRO
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels
Church Patron Saints: St. Michael & All Angels
Church Location: Church St, Croston, Leyland PR26 9HA, UK
Country Name: England
Location: Lancashire, North West
Directions to Site: Located off the B5247-A581 crossroads, just SE of Bretherton and the A59, W of Chorley
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Blackburn
Historical Region: Hundred of Leyland
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Date: 1663
Century and Period: 17th century, Post-Reformation
Cognate Fonts: other hexagonal fonts listed for England
No individual entry found for Croston in the Domesday survey. Baines (1836) notes the font here with an incorrect number of sides: "the font is small and octagonal [it is actually hexagonal], having the date 1663 upon one of its divisions. This piece of local antiquity is covered with black paint!" [source: www.tarletonvillage.com/history/baines/baines_croston.html]. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 mentions only that "the font has the date 1663". Noted in Pevsner (1969) and Hartwell & Pevsner (2009): "Font. Dated 1663, and very characteristic of the date. Note especially how the quatrefoils have been geometricized." The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Lancaster, vol. 6, 1911) notes: "The church of Croston was granted by Count Roger of Poitou [i.e., Roger 'le Poitevin', † ca. 1123] to the abbey of St. Martin at Sees, [...] and the Prior and convent of Lancaster accordingly presented the rectors, receiving an annual pension of 6 marks from the church. [...] The oldest parts of the church other than the piscina mentioned later seem to be the east end of the chancel and the lower part of the tower, which are probably of 15th-century date, at which period the church may have been built on the present plan, and to which date some other portions of the building may belong. There was so much rebuilding and restoration, however, in the following three centuries, of which no exact record has been kept, that it is now very difficult to assign the actual date to the greater part of the building. It seems, however, to be largely 16th-century work on a 15th-century basis, altered in the 17th, partly rebuilt in the 18th, and restored in the 19th century. [...] The font is at the west end of the south aisle, and is hexagonal in shape with panelled sides, and dated 1663. It stands on a six-shafted stem and has a modern wood cover." A recent illustration of this font appears in Lancashire Churches [www.lancashirechurches.co.uk/croston.htm]: the font consists of a hexagonal basin, the vertical sides decorated with deeply-carved panels containing geometric quatrefoils [cf. Pevsner supra], raised on a cluster of a central shaft and four outer colonnettes; the inner well of the basin is lead-lined. The combination of its hexagonal shape and geometric decoration make this font an odd one for the period.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 53.65936, -2.7734
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 53° 39′ 33.7″ N, 2° 46′ 24.24″ W
UTM: 30U 514975 5945647

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: hexagonal (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: hexagonal
Drainage Notes: lead lining

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: numbers?
Inscription Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
Inscription Text: [1663]
Inscription Source: [cf. FontNotes]

LID INFORMATION

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

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2019-03-12 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Baines, Edward, History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster, London: Fisher & Son, 1836
Hartwell, Clare, Lancashire North, New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsy, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions [...], London: S. Lewis, 1831
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Lancashire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1969