Durham No. 6

INFORMATION

FontID: 12659DUR
Church/Chapel: Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen [in ruins]
Church Patron Saints: St. Mary Magdalene
Country Name: England
Location: Durham, North East
Directions to Site: Located on the N side of Gilesgate, near the old railway station [now "on the roadside just after the roundabout half-way up Claypath on the road to Sunderland" [cf. FontNotes]
Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]
Century and Period: 13th - 14th century, Medieval
The Victoria County History (Durham, 1928) notes that, within the ruins of the old hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, in the Parish of St. Giles, Durham, is "the base of an early font of Frosterley marble". Harvey (2006) cites an entry from the Durham Cathedral Muniments' Almoner of 1450, which notes that "the font had a marble stone at its foot for which Nicholas Chaunceller was paid 8d." [NB: Harvey (ibid.) notes that the old church "was a parish church as well as a hospital", and was by then [ca. 1450] in ruins and on boggy foundations; it was being replaced by a new church at the time -- the font was obviously the original one -- is the base noted in the VCH part of that font?]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Frosterley marble)

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2010-01-12 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Harvey, Margaret, Lay religious life in late medieval Durham, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2006