Fifield Bavant / Fifehide / Fifhide / Fiffehyde Beaufaunt / Fifield Scudamore

Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 September 2015)

Results: 10 records

Click to view images

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the font in August 2015, after the clean-up

Image Source: digital photograph taken 18 August 2015 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 September 2015)

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: the font and cover in 2003, before the clean-up

Image Source: photograph taken August 2005 by Duncan & Mandy Ball

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the font and cover in February 2007, before the clean-up

Image Source: digital photograph taken 26 February 2007 by Trish Steel [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/349536] [accessed 30 November 2008]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

design element - motifs - scallop - trumpet scallop

Scene Description: as described in Pevsner & Cherry (1975) [cf. Font notes] [NB: the trumpet scallops appear not to be very deep]

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 18 August 2015 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 September 2015)

design element - motifs - roll moulding

Scene Description: at the upper end of the stem of the base -- the font in August 2015, after the clean-up

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 18 August 2015 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 September 2015)

view of church exterior - northwest view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 18 August 2015 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 September 2015)

view of church exterior - southwest view

Image Source: digital photograph by Mark Collins in [www.roughwood.net/ChurchAlbum/Wiltshire/FifieldBavant2003.htm] [accessed 5 September 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - nave - looking west

Scene Description: the font and cover partially visible at the far [west] end, right [north] side

Image Source: digital photograph by Mark Collins in [www.roughwood.net/ChurchAlbum/Wiltshire/FifieldBavant2003.htm] [accessed 5 September 2008]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

design element - motifs - moulding

Scene Description: on the stem and lower base

Image Source: detail of a digital photograph taken 18 August 2015 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 September 2015)

view of font cover

Image Source: digital photograph taken 18 August 2015 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 13 September 2015)

INFORMATION

Font ID: 13768FIE

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century (late?), Norman

Cognate Fonts: a group of somewhat similar fonts at Chitterne, Etchilhampton, Everleigh, Fifield Bavant, Longbridge Deverill, Norton nr Malmesbury, Patney (?), Stockton

Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Martin of Tours

Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave, N side

Church Patron Saint(s): St. Martin of Tours

Church Address: Fifield Bavant, SP5 5HT

Site Location: Wiltshire, South West, England, United Kingdom

Directions to Site: Located off (S) the A30, 10 km W of Coome Bissett, 11 km SW of Wilton, 13 km WSW of Salisbury

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury

Historical Region: Hundred of Stowford [in Domesday] -- Hundred of Chalke

Additional Comments: altered font (the outer stone surface thoroughly cleaned between 2007 and 2015)

Font Notes: Click to view

There are two entries for Fifield [Bavant] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU0125/fifield-bavant/] [accessed 13 September 2015], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Baptismal font noted in Buck (1951): "Similar to that of Stockton except that the cones on underside slope downwards in a concave curve instead of being horizontal." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Circular. Norman. The lower rim of the bowl undulates. It is in fact the top of an underside consisting of trumpet scallops." The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 13, 1987) notes: "A chaplain of 'Fifield' recorded at a date perhaps in the mid 12th century [...] and a rector collated to 'Fifield' by the bishop of Salisbury in or before 1291 [...] probably served Fifield Bavant church. There was a rector in 1305. [...] Like its neighbours the church may have been built as a chapel dependent on Broad Chalke church. [...] The church of St. Martin was so called in 1496, [...] and may have been so from or before the grant of 1267 of a Martinmas fair at Fifield Bavant. [...] The 12th-century font and a lancet window in the north wall suggest an early origin".

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Mark Collins, of www.roughwood.net, to Duncan & Mandy Ball, of www.oodwooc.co.uk, and to Colin Smith for their photographs of this church and font

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 571855 5653094

Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.024907, -1.975425

Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 1′ 29.66″ N, 1° 58′ 31.53″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: cylindrical, mounted

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Drainage Notes: lead-lined

LID INFORMATION

Material: wood, oak?

Apparatus: no

Notes: a noteworthy old cover, round and low-domed, with a heavy leaf-like finial; crude local work, likely

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Buck, A.G. Randle, "Some Wiltshire fonts. Part II", LIV, CXCIV (June 1951), The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 1951, pp. 19-35; p. 24
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 227
Cox, John Charles, Nottinghamshire, London: Allen, 1912, p. 244