Rycote Liberty / Rycote Chapel / Rycott

INFORMATION

Font ID: 13030RYC
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1449?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [re-cut basin only -- 15th century (mid?) [base 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
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Michael & All Angels
Site Location: Oxfordshire, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located 3 km SE of Tiddington, 4 km SW of Thame
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Additional Comments: re-cut basin? -- composite font / re-cycled font? -- Image in [www.flickr.com/photos/41621108@N00/4793193104/in/faves-vitrearum/] [accessed 13 November 2011] [not available for download]
Font Notes:
The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850) notes: "The font is octagon, panelled, with the original wooden cover." Lee (1883) notes: "The font, of third-pointed work, is at the west end". Noted in Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911 as a Perpendicular font [NB: since the church itself was built by Richard Quartremayne [aka, Quatremain] in 1449, according to Kelly's (ibid.), the font is likely of that date]. In Sherwood & Pevsner (1974): "Cup-shaped, probably a C12 tub font re-cut. The panelled base and ogee ribbed cover are C15." A font-cover in Rycote church is noted and illustrated in Howard & Crossley (1919). A recent photograph of this font and cover in the context of the interior of the chapel can be found in Flickr [www.flickr.com/photos/41621108@N00/4793193104/in/faves-vitrearum/] [accessed 13 November 2011]. The font is located on the south side of the nave, at the west end of the chapel, beneath the gallery; the font consists of a rounded basin of plain tapering sides, raised on a polygonal pedestal base with panelled sides and a moulded lowe base. On it is the wooden cover noted above. [NB: the chapel is mid-15th century, so, if the font basin is 12th-century, it must have been moved in from an earlier church in the neighbourhood].

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 635597 5733646

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: round, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round

REFERENCES

  • Howard, F.E., English Church Woodwork: a Study in Craftmanship during the Mediaeval period A.D. 1250-1550, London: B.T. Batsford, 1919, p. 321 and ill. on p. 330
  • Kelly, Kelly's Directory of Oxfordshire, London: Kelly's Directories Ltd., 1911, p. 116 / [http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp] [accessed 2July 2007]
  • Lee, Frederick George, Rev., The History, description, and Antiquities of the Prebendal Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame, in the County and Diocese of Oxford, [...], London: Printed and published by Mitchell and Hughes, 1883, p. 329
  • Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England: Oxfordshire, Oxford, London: Published under the sanction of the Central Commitee of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland [by] John Henry Parker, 1850, [unpaged -- entry 102] / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=maikb1i3wSUC&pg=PT144&lpg=PT144&dq=longcot+church+font&source=web&ots=p3k5tJJE6J&sig=KYjkm8H5wOoAuH7BvnLp7JqMPus&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA17,M1] [accessed 31 December 2008]
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, Oxfordshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1974, p. 747