Swaffham Prior No. 1 / Suafam / Suafham / Svafam

Main image for Swaffham Prior No. 1 / Suafam / Suafham / Svafam

Image copyright © Evelyn Simak, 2012

CC-BY-SA-2.0

Results: 7 records

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the old basin on a modern pedestal base replacement -- the original square basin was made octagonal at a later date by cutting wide chamfers at the corners; notice also the notch cut into the stone at the upper rim, probably related to an anchoring spot for an old cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Evelyn Simak, 2012
Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 29 March 2012 by Evelyn Simak [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2968485] [accessed 20 July 2016]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - southeast view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2016
Image Source: digital photograph taken 30 March 2016 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4904981] [accessed 20 July 2016]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - northwest view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2016
Image Source: digital photograph taken 30 March 2016 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4904981] [accessed 20 July 2016]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church exterior - west view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Mark Ynys-Mon, 2004
Image Source: digital photograph by Mark Ynys-Mon, 2004, in Cambridgeshire Churches [http://www.druidic.org/camchurch/churches/swaffhampriormary.htm] [accessed 9 December 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover in context

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Evelyn Simak, 2012
Image Source: digital photograph taken 29 March 2012 by Evelyn Simak [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2968485] [accessed 20 July 2016]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Salmon, 2016
Image Source: digital photograph taken 30 March 2016 by John Salmon [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4904985] [accessed 20 July 2016]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

view of church interior - looking east

Scene Description: taken from beneath the tower
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Mark Ynys-Mon, 2004
Image Source: digital photograph by Mark Ynys-Mon, 2004, in Cambridgeshire Churches [http://www.druidic.org/camchurch/churches/swaffhampriormary.htm] [accessed 9 December 2007]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

Font ID: 13251SWA
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century [basin only] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary
Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: High Street, Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire CB5 0LD
Site Location: Cambridgeshire, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B1102, 3 km SW of Burwell, 8 km W of Newmarket, 18-20 km NNE of Cambridge
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Ely
Historical Region: Hundred of Staine
Additional Comments: altered font (the original square basin was cut into octagonal at a later date - stem and base are modern replacements) -- disappeared font (the one from the original church here)
Font Notes:
There are nine entries for Swaffham [Bulbeck and Prior] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/XX0000/swaffham-bulbeck-and-prior/] [accessed 20 July 2016], none of which mentions cleric or church in it. The RCHM (1972) notes: "Font: square bowl with later splayed corners and chamfered under-edge, modern stem, 13th-century." The Victoria County History (Cambridge and the Isle of Ely, vol. 10, 2002) notes: "Of those Cambridgeshire villages that once had two churches standing within one churchyard to serve separate ecclesiastical parishes, only Swaffham Prior still retains, though mostly rebuilt, both the ancient parish churches certainly established by the early 13th century. […] Their benefices have, however, been united since 1667. The church of St. Cyriac and St. Julitta (his mother) was commonly called St. Cyri(a)c's. Its unusual dedication was established by the 1210s […] and possibly before the Conquest. […] It stands higher and more centrally in the joint churchyard than St. Mary's, which may be of slightly later origin. Both churches however, since their fabric still retained 12th-century features c. 1800, […] may well have been founded by 1100. […] The two churches of ST. CYRIAC AND ST. JULITTA and ST. MARY, the second so named by the 1250s, […] stand less than 100 ft. (30 m.) apart in a raised churchyard south-east of the south-western part of the village street. St. Cyriac's is on the crest, St. Mary's in a dip to its north, nearer that street. Until 1800 both of their fabrics were mostly late medieval. […] The surviving square 13th-century font was reinstated in the tower in 1903 […] Separate registers for St. Cyriac's and St. Mary's are extant between 1559 and the late 1650s, […] after which combined ones, started during the Interregnum, were continued following the formal union of the benefices."
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Mark Ynys-Mon, 2004, of Cambridgeshire Churches, for the photographs of this church

COORDINATES

UTM: 31U 315388 5792425
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 52.25121, 0.29543
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 52° 15′ 4.36″ N, 0° 17′ 43.55″ E

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal, originally square

LID INFORMATION

Date: modern
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: round and flat, with metal decoration and handle; modern

REFERENCES

  • Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Cambridge, Woking; London: Printed in England for Her Majesty's Stationary Office by Unwin Brothers Unlimited, 1968, vol. 2: 118