West Wycombe / West Wycumb / Wicumbe / Wycombe West

Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022

Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 3 December 2022)

Results: 19 records

view of base

Scene Description: upper end of the stem

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Oxfordshire Church Illustrations, 2007

Image Source: detail of a photograph in Flicker, with original from Oxfordshire Church Illustrations [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/407865123/] [accessed 26 July 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of base

Scene Description: lower end of the stem and lower base

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Oxfordshire Church Illustrations, 2007

Image Source: detail of a photograph in Flicker, with original from Oxfordshire Church Illustrations [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/407865123/] [accessed 26 July 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of base - detail

Scene Description: the climbing snake

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Oxfordshire Church Illustrations, 2007

Image Source: photograph in Flicker, with original from Oxfordshire Church Illustrations [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/407865123/] [accessed 26 July 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of base - detail

Scene Description: the head of the snake [image rotated 90 degrees to the right]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Oxfordshire Church Illustrations, 2007

Image Source: detail of a photograph in Flicker, with original from Oxfordshire Church Illustrations [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/407865123/] [accessed 26 July 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of basin

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Oxfordshire Church Illustrations, 2007

Image Source: photograph in Flicker, with original from Oxfordshire Church Illustrations [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/407865123/] [accessed 26 July 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of basin

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Oxfordshire Church Illustrations, 2007

Image Source: photograph in Flicker, with original from Oxfordshire Church Illustrations [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/407865123/] [accessed 26 July 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of basin - detail

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Oxfordshire Church Illustrations, 2007

Image Source: photograph in Flicker, with original from Oxfordshire Church Illustrations [http://flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/407865123/] [accessed 26 July 2007]

Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE

view of church exterior - northeast view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Dave HItchborne, 2013

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 June 2013 Dave Hitchborne [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3663424] [accessed 26 October 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - southeast view

Scene Description: Source caption: "The Church of St Lawrence, West Wycombe. Built in the 14th century and then dramatically changed in 1752. Thirteen days after this photograph was taken it was the 250th anniversary of the rebuilding of the church."

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Dave HItchborne, 2013

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 June 2013 Dave Hitchborne [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3663406] [accessed 26 October 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - looking west

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Vigar, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 July 2010 by John Vigar [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1963717] [accessed 26 October 2015]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of context

Scene Description: West Wycombe Park House "Later C17 or early C18 structure remodelled circa 1735-65 for Sir Francis Dashwood Bart, Lord Le Despencer (1708-81) [...] Designed circa 1765 by Robert Adam and carried out with modifications by Nicholas Revett." [Historical England Listing NGR: SU8288294290]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022

Image Source: digital photograph 26 July 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 11 December 2022)

view of context

Scene Description: West Wycombe Park House "Later C17 or early C18 structure remodelled circa 1735-65 for Sir Francis Dashwood Bart, Lord Le Despencer (1708-81) [...] Designed circa 1765 by Robert Adam and carried out with modifications by Nicholas Revett." [Historical England Listing NGR: SU8288294290]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022

Image Source: digital photograph 26 July 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 11 December 2022)

view of font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]

Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Tyrrell-Green (1928)

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of font

Scene Description: Source caption: "St Lawrence, West Wycombe - Font"

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2012

Image Source: digital image of a 1995 photograph by John Salmon [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3266069] [accessed 4 December 2022]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the modern baptismal font in St Paul's Church, West Wycombe [the second Anglican church in the village, shared with the Orthodox Church]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022

Image Source: digital photograph 26 July 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 3 December 2022)

view of font in context

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2012

Image Source: digital image of a 1995 photograph by John Salmon [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3266063] [accessed 4 December 2022]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0

view of object

Scene Description: West Wycombe Park House "Later C17 or early C18 structure remodelled circa 1735-65 for Sir Francis Dashwood Bart, Lord Le Despencer (1708-81) [...] Designed circa 1765 by Robert Adam and carried out with modifications by Nicholas Revett." [Historical England Listing NGR: SU8288294290]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022

Image Source: digital photograph 26 July 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 11 December 2022)

view of object - detail

Scene Description: West Wycombe Park House "Later C17 or early C18 structure remodelled circa 1735-65 for Sir Francis Dashwood Bart, Lord Le Despencer (1708-81) [...] Designed circa 1765 by Robert Adam and carried out with modifications by Nicholas Revett." [Historical England Listing NGR: SU8288294290]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022

Image Source: digital photograph 26 July 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 11 December 2022)

view of object in context

Scene Description: West Wycombe Park House "Later C17 or early C18 structure remodelled circa 1735-65 for Sir Francis Dashwood Bart, Lord Le Despencer (1708-81) [...] Designed circa 1765 by Robert Adam and carried out with modifications by Nicholas Revett." [Historical England Listing NGR: SU8288294290]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Colin Smith, 2022

Image Source: digital photograph 26 July 2022 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 11 December 2022)

INFORMATION

FontID: 13066BUC
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Lawrence
Church Patron Saints: St. Lawrence [aka Laurence]
Church Location: Church Lane, West Wycombe Hill, West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3AP
Country Name: England
Location: Buckinghamshire, South East
Directions to Site: Located 5 km WNW of High Wycombe
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Historical Region: Hundred of Desborough
Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]
Century and Period: 13th century, Early English
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Colin Smith for his photograph of the modern font in West Wycombe St Paul's and of the object at the West Wycombe Park amnsion
There are three entries for [West] Wycombe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU8394/west-wycombe/] [accessed 26 October 2015], none of which mentions cleric or church in it. A font is reported in Langley (1797): "The church […] was rebuilt by lord Le Despenser in 1763 […] The font represents the serpent twining round a pillar, to typify the fall; and on the top are four doves, also typical of the purity of the gospel; or the whole may be comprised in the precept of our Saviour-- To be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Batty (1848) cites "the Rev. A. Baker, Hon. Sec." as source for information about this silver font [NB: Batty's source was probably an officer of the Architectural and Archaeological Society for the County of Buckingham, where he read his paper]. Sheahan (1862) describes the font: "a mahogany tripod, supported upon a slender pillar, around which a serpent is coiled, and in pursuit of a dove, that is making its way to four others that are settled on the verge. The figures of the hirds are beautifully formed." Sheahan (ibid.) also gives a full account of the arson attempt on this church, and the damage done to the font: "On the 17th of April, 1845, the church was broken into and attempted to be set on fire. The sacrilegious incendiary placed a quantity of paper in one of the wooden lockers at the west end of the nave (which also serve for seats), and tearing the leaves from a prayer-book, he placed them between the carved doves on the top of the font; and then set fire to the paper in both places, but providential to relate the only injury that the sacred edifice sustained was the burning of the beaks of the doves, and the charring of tho interior of the locker. The beak of the dove on the stem, that is being pursued by the serpent, is perfect, the blaze not having reached it." Murray (1882) writes: "the font is a bronze tripod, supporting a basin surrounded by doves, in pursuit of which a serpent is climbing". The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 3, 1925) suggests that the walls of the 13th-century chancel may still survive within the 1763 alterations, and notes that the font and all the other fittings are from that date. Noted with an illustration in Tyrrell-Green (1928). The font is probably from 1763, as suggested in the VCH above; it is highly stylised, consisting of a shallow square basin supported on a thin stem and four short legs; there are four birds on the basin upper surface, and a further one on the upper end of the stem; lower down a snake slithers up the stem. [NB: we have no information on the font of the pre-1763 church here] The second Anglican church in West Wycombe is late-19th century and has a baptismal font of stone of that period/date. An object that may be a former font or stoup is reported in the large portico at the West Wycombe Park mansion [cf. ImagesArea]; we have no information on its origin.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.647267, -0.80541
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 38′ 50.16″ N, 0° 48′ 19.48″ W
UTM: 30U 651833 5724088

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2011-05-30 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Batty, Robert Eaton, Some particulars connected with the history of baptismal fonts: being a paper read at the quarterly general meeting of the Architectural and Archaeological Society for the County of Buckingham, London: F. & J. Rivington, 1848
Langley, Thomas, The History and Antiquities of the Hundred of Desborough, and Deanery of Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire […], London: Printed for R. Faulder […] and B. and J. White, 1797
Murray, John [the firm], Handbook for travellers in Berks. Bucks and Oxfordshire, including a [...], London: John Murray, 1882
Sheahan, James Joseph, History and topography of Buckinghamshire, comprising a general survey of the county, preceded by an epitome of the early history of Great Britain, London; Pontefract: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts; William Edward Bonas [...], 1862
Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928