Swyncombe No. 1 / Swincombe / Suincumbe
Image copyright © Bill Nicholls, 2013
CC-BY-SA-2.0
Results: 6 records
view of church exterior - northeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Stuart Logan, 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 1 May 2013 by Stuart Logan [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3439648] [accessed 3 July 2019]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - northwest view
Scene Description: showing the block north entranceway
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Bill Nicholls, 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2013 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3638823] [accessed 3 July 2019]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - southeast view
Scene Description: the church has no belfry or tower; the little roof-canopy by the east side of the porch covers the single bell of this church
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © James Emmans, 2015
Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 June 2015 by James Emmans [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4515267] [accessed 3 July 2019]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church interior - chancel and east end
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Bill Nicholls, 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2013 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3634176] [accessed 3 July 2019]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church interior - nave - looking east
Scene Description: view taken from the left side of the old font -- the disproportionate modern chancel screen blocks the view of the lovely chancel
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Bill Nicholls, 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2013 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3623808] [accessed 3 July 2019]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of font and cover in context
Scene Description: the font is possibly late-11thC but was heavily restored [and re-cut?] in the 19thC
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Bill Nicholls, 2013
Image Source: digital photograph taken 11 August 2013 by Bill Nicholls [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3623804] [accessed 3 July 2019]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
INFORMATION
FontID: 14183SWY
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. Botolph
Church Patron Saints: St. Botulph [aka St. Botolph, Botolph of Thorney, Botulf]
Church Location: Swyncombe, Henley-on-Thames RG9 6EA, UK -- Tel.: (01491) 614281
Country Name: England
Location: Oxfordshire, South East
Directions to Site: Located off (W) the B481, 3 kmESE of Ewelme, 5 km S of Watlington, 7 km ENE of Wallingford, in the Chilterns
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Historical Region: Hundred of Ewelme -- Hundred of Benson [in Domesday]
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the nave, S side, by the S entranceway
Century and Period: 11th - 12th century, Norman
There is an entry for Swyncombe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SU6890/swyncombe/] [accessed 3 July 2019] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850) notes: "The font is plain, tub-shaped, N[orman]". [NB: there is no mention of the stoup in this source; neither stoup nor font are mentioned in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974)]. The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of November 1858: 478) contains a note on the church at Swyncombe "carefully described by Benjamin Ferrey, Esq. [...] The font is extremely plain, and of Anglo-Saxon date: its cover, base, and part of stem, are restorations." [NB: the article appears to be a book review of 'Historical notices of the parishes of Swyncombe and Ewelme, in the county of Oxford', by [...] Henry Alfred Napier [...] (Oxford, 1858)]. The entry for Syncombe in Kelly's Directory of Oxfordshire (1895) reports: "there is a plain cup-shaped Norman font, with a restored stem, base and cover". The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 18, 2016) notes: "Swyncombe had its own church by the late 11th century, when it belonged to Bec abbey. [...] Swyncombe's late 11th-century church contains a font of similar date, and may have been fully independent from its foundation [...] he dedication to St Botolph (d. 680), an East Anglian abbot, is unusual in Oxfordshire, and perhaps reflects East Anglian connections via the nearby Icknield Way. [...] Certainly the dedication must be medieval, since Bec abbeys 12th-century annual fair at Swyncombe was held at the time of St Botolph's feast (17 June). [...] tubshaped font (recut in the 19th century), and fragments of a pillar piscina with carved capital, discovered in the porch's foundations during Ferreys restoration [...] The earliest fabric is late 11th-century, built almost certainly by masons working for Bec abbey." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SU6824690188] notes: "Church. Late C11, restored in 1831 and by Ferrey in 1850. [...] Norman font recut in mid C19 with mid C19 cover."
COORDINATES
Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal:
51.60628,
-1.0157
Church Latitude & Longitude DMS:
51° 36′ 22.61″ N,
1° 0′ 56.52″ W
UTM: 30U 637409 5719114
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material:
stone
Font Shape: tub-shaped
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material:
wood,
oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: round and flat, with metal decoration and ring handle; modern
REFERENCES
Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2019-07-03 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Parker, John Henry, The Ecclesiastical and architectural topography of England: Oxfordshire, Oxford, London: Published under the sanction of the Central Commitee of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland [by] John Henry Parker, 1850