Aston Somerville / Estune
Image copyright © Philip Pankhurst, 2017
CC-BY-SA-2.0
Results: 12 records
view of font and cover - west side
Scene Description: Source caption: "The rather puzzling font. The plinth is ancient, but no one is sure about the font itself."
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Pankhurst, 2017
Image Source: digital photograph taken 8 July 2017 by Philip Pankhurst [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5458923] [accessed 25 September 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [http://www.allthecotswolds.com/] [accessed 2 February 2008]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - motifs - wheel - 8-spoke
![[cf. Font notes]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/compressed/1180925009_compressed.png)
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Pankhurst, 2017
Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 8 July 2017 by Philip Pankhurst [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5458923] [accessed 25 September 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
design element - patterns - varied
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [http://www.allthecotswolds.com/] [accessed 2 February 2008]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Halling, 2009
Image Source: digital photograph taken 7 March 2009 by Philip Halling [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1198220] [accessed 25 September 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - tower
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Wilkes, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by John Wilkes [http://www.allthecotswolds.com/] [accessed 2 February 2008]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church interior - nave - looking east
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Halling, 2009
Image Source: digital photograph taken 7 March 2009 by Philip Halling [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1198220] [accessed 25 September 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
design element - patterns - torsade
Scene Description: on the round sections of the stem [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Pankhurst, 2017
Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 8 July 2017 by Philip Pankhurst [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5458923] [accessed 25 September 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
design element - patterns
Scene Description: partially cut off, on some sides of the lower base block [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Philip Pankhurst, 2017
Image Source: edited detail of a digital photograph taken 8 July 2017 by Philip Pankhurst [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5458923] [accessed 25 September 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of font - upper view
![[cf. Font notes]](/static-50478a99ec6f36a15d6234548c59f63da52304e5/others/permission_not_available.jpg)
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The British Academy & G L Pearson, 1993
Image Source: digital photograph in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/ed-wo-astso.html] [accessed 12 May 2010]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of font
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The British Academy & G L Pearson, 1993
Image Source: digital photograph in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/ed-wo-astso.html] [accessed 12 May 2010]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
view of basin
Scene Description: [cf. Font notes]
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © The British Academy & G L Pearson, 1993
Image Source: digital photograph in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/ed-wo-astso.html] [accessed 12 May 2010]
Copyright Instructions: PERMISSION NOT AVAILABLE -- IMAGE NOT FOR PUBLIC USE
INFORMATION
Font ID: 13336AST
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [re-cut & re-tooled?] / 17th century, Romanesque [altered?] / Post-Reformation?
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: Church Rd, Aston Somerville WR12 7JG, UK -- Tel.: 01242 602067
Site Location: Worcestershire, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (E) the B4078, 6 km SSE of Evesham
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Gloucester
Historical Region: Hundred of Greston -- formerly Gloucestershire
Additional Comments: altered font? re-tooled font? re-cycled font? re-cut font?
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for Aston [Somerville] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP0438/aston-somerville/] [accessed 25 September 2018] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Pevsner (1968) writes about the font here, with reservations to its date and integrity: "A very odd piece Is it Norman, cut down and re-tooled?" Brooks & Pevsner (2007) add: "A very odd piece, probably post-Reformation despite its Norman-style carving and incised decoration; severely cut down at some stage. The circular plinth could be Norman." Described and illustrated in The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (2008), where Pevsner's reservations are noted and the possibility of the font having a Romanesque relation is considered. As the CRSBI points out, "inventive style of the font resembles nothing else in the county, and its date is uncertain"; and, in its entry for Middle Littleton, it adds: "he only other font in Worcester to bear such deeply incised decoration is at Aston Somerville, 10 km to the S, although the motifs are different". The basin is roughly polygonal, alternating round and flat surfaces; all the round ones are carved with patterns of several designs; some of the flat ones are plain, one of the latter sides has a series of circles with eight spokes. It is on this side where it is most obvious that the rest of the basin has been cut off, though the unlikely shallowness of the inner well is also a tell-tale of the alteration, as is he odd shape of the lower base.
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to John Wilkes, of Worcestershire Church Montages [http://www.allthecotswolds.com/], for his photographs of church and font.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 573267 5765973
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 52.03953, -1.9318
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 52° 2′ 22.31″ N, 1° 55′ 54.48″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Diameter (inside rim): 49 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 66 cm* [maximum width]
Basin Depth: 10 cm* [cut off]
Basin Total Height: 23 cm* [cut off]
Height of Base: 56 cm [calculated: 29 + 23 cm*]
Height of Central Column: 29 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 79 cm [calculated: 23 + 29 + 23 cm*]
Notes on Measurements: * CRSBI (2008)
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: octagonal and flat, with knob finial/handle
REFERENCES
- Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
- Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
- Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. URL: http://www.crsbi.ac.uk.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Worcestershire, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968, p. 73