Kingswood nr. Wotton-under-Edge

INFORMATION

Font ID: 14107KIN
Object Type: Baptismal Font1?
Font Date: ca. 1139?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary, Kingswood
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: High St, Kingswood, Wotton-under-Edge GL12 8RS, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1454 260476
Site Location: Gloucestershire, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B4062, 2-3 km SW of Wotton-under-Edge
Historical Region: formerly Wiltshire
Additional Comments: disappeared font? From the abbey church?
Font Notes:
Noted in Verey & Brooks (1999-2002): "Font. Of c. 1723, with carved bowl on a fluted stem." This same source remarks that St. Mary's was "built in 1722-2, just S[outh] E[ast] of the abbey gatehouse, perhaps on the site of a 'capella ante portas' " and that "previously the parish had apparently used a remnant of the abbey church", "the Cistercian Abbey of the Blessed Mary […] founded c. 1139 by the Berkeley family, with monks from Tintern, Monmouthshire […] The abbey was dissolved in 1538". As in many other such institutions, it is quite likely that the abbey church may have functioned as parish church, but we have no information on the baptismal font of that church, or of the 'capella ante portas' noted above.

REFERENCES

  • Verey, David, Gloucestershire, London: Penguin Books, 1999-2002, vol. 2: 558