Swaton / Svavetone / Swayton
Image copyright © Allan Soedring (ASTOFT), 2013
Image and permission received (e-mail of 8 September 2013)
Results: 9 records
design element - architectural - column - clustered columns - with capitals and bases - 8
Scene Description: moulded capitals and bases
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Allan Soedring (ASTOFT), 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2003 by Allan Soedring [www.astoft.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 8 September 2013)
design element - motifs - floral - ball-flower - 8
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Allan Soedring (ASTOFT), 2013
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 15 August 2003 by Allan Soedring [www.astoft.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 8 September 2013)
design element - patterns - floral
Scene Description: four-leaved; made up of nine (3 x 3 ) flowers on each side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Allan Soedring (ASTOFT), 2013
Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 15 August 2003 by Allan Soedring [www.astoft.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 8 September 2013)
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Allan Soedring (ASTOFT), 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2003 by Allan Soedring [www.astoft.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 8 September 2013)
view of church interior - chancel
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Hunky Punk, 2011
Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 August 2011 by Hunky Punk [www.flickr.com/photos/hunky_punk/8896779404] [accessed 7 September 2013]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0
view of church interior - nave - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Allan Soedring (ASTOFT), 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2003 by Allan Soedring [www.astoft.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 8 September 2013)
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: engraving by Robert Roberts of a drawing by F. Simpson Junior, in Simpson (1828: 40)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Gardner (1925: pl. CLXXI)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Allan Soedring (ASTOFT), 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2003 by Allan Soedring [www.astoft.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 8 September 2013)
INFORMATION
FontID: 12795SWA
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Michael
Church Patron Saints: St. Michael
Church Location: Swaton, Lincolnshire NG34 0JR
Country Name: England
Location: Lincolnshire, East Midlands
Directions to Site: Located on the B1394, N of the A52.Holland Rd., 9 km NE of Falkingham, 15 km SE of Sleaford, 25 ENE of Grantham, 50 km N of Peterborough
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Lincoln
Historical Region: Hundred of Aveland [in Domesday] -- Wapentake of Aswardhurn
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Date: ca. 1300-1340?
Century and Period: 14th century, Decorated
Cognate Fonts: a 19th-century copy of this font at Hartlip, Kent; a Victorian font inspired on this at Wootton Bassett
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Allan Soedring, of www.astoft.co.uk,for his photographs of this church and font
There are four entries for Swaton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TF1337/swaton/] [accessed 22 July 2015], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. The font here is described and illustrated in Simpson (1828) as "an early specimen of Decorated work [...]; it is in a very excellent preservation, except that on the eastern side, a portion of the bowl has been cut away to make room for one of the splendid Perpendicular open seats, with which nearly the whole of the church is fitted up. When we saw it in 1824, it was was under the westernmost of the north aisle arches, and was coated with yellow ochre, but this disfiguring incumbrance was, as we were told, soon to be removed." Moule (1837) writes: "The font is very curious, and is in excellent preservation". Poole (1848) notes: "in Paley's Manual (p. 263,) the font of Swaton, Lincolnshire, assigned to about 1340". Sutton (1904) describes it as "a most beautiful example of the Decorated period". Described and illustrated in Gardner (1925), who dates it to ca. 1300. Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a baptismal font of the 14th century, the sides of its basin ornamented with four-leaved flower patterns, and with a row of ball-flower motifs right under the lower rim edge of the basin. The upper rim of the basin still showed one of the cover eyelets on it. The base has the shape of eight clustered columns with moulded caps and bases. The whole is raised on a low octagonal plinth. Buck (1951) remarks that the design of the 19th-century font at Wooton Bassett, Wiltshire, was based on this font. Noted in Pevsner, Harris and Antram (1989): "Font. Octagonal, with diapering all over. Ballflower on the underside, i.e. Dec[orated] too." Glynne (1877) notes "a very good imitation" of this font in Hartlip, Kent.
COORDINATES
Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal:
52.922972,
-0.316164
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS:
52° 55′ 22.7″ N,
0° 18′ 58.19″ W
UTM: 30U 680416 5867074
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material:
stone
Number of Pieces: two?
Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Rim Thickness: 10 cm [calculated]
Diameter (inside rim): 55 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 75 cm*
Basin Depth: 32.5 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 107.5 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * [Simpson (1828: 40)]
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material:
wood,
oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: octagonal and flat, with moulded sides [NB: one iron staple still left in the upper rim of the basin in Simpson's time [ca. 1828]]
REFERENCES
Buck, A.G. Randle, "Some Wiltshire fonts. Part III", LIV, CXCV (December 1951), The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 1951, pp. 192-209; r["References"]
Gardner, Samuel, A Guide to English Gothic Architecture (illustrated by numerous drawings & photographs), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925
Glynne, Steven Richard, Sir, Notes on the churches of Kent, London: John Murray, 1877
Moule, Thomas, The English counties delineated; or, A topographical description of England [...], London: George Virtue, 1837 [vol. 2]
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Lincolnshire, London: Penguin, 1989
Poole, George Ayliffe, A History of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England, London: Printed by Joseph Masters, 1848
Simpson, Francis, A series of ancient baptismal fonts: chronologically arranged, drwan by F. Simpson, Jun., engraved by R. Roberts, London: Septimus Prowett, 1828
Sutton, A.F., "A Description of the Churches Visited in the Excursion from Sleaford, June 30th and July 1st, 1903", XXVII, Reports and Papers Read at the Meetings of the Architectural Societies of the Diocese of Lincoln, County of York, Archdeaconry of Northampton, County of Bedford, Diocese of Worcester, County of Leicester and Town of Sheffield, 1904, pp. 92-111; r["References"]
Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928
