Bletchley / Bicchelai / Blechelegh / Blecheley / Blechley / West Bletchley

Main image for Bletchley / Bicchelai / Blechelegh / Blecheley / Blechley / West Bletchley

Image copyright © Cameraman, 2002

CC-BY-SA-2.0

Results: 1 records

view of church exterior - south view

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Cameraman, 2002
Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 May 2002 by Cameraman [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1809287] [accessed 2 February 2016]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

INFORMATION

Font ID: 14445BLE
Object Type: Baptismal Font1?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century (late?), Late Norman? / Transitional?
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary
Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: West Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK3 6BL, England
Site Location: Buckinghamshire, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located 2 km WSW of Fenny Stratford, and a constituent town of Milton Keynes
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Oxford
Historical Region: Hundred of Newport
Additional Comments: disappeared font? (the medieval one)
Font Notes:
No entry found for Bletchley in the Domesday survey. Parker (1850) notes that the church, of mixed Decorated and Perpendicular periods, "was restored in a bad style, with painted Gracian panelling, by Browne Willis, who also [...] gave the font" [NB: Browne Willis (1682-1760 ) was a Senior Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London]. The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 4, 1927) notes: "The church of Bletchley was built before 1212 [...] The earliest part of the church which can be definitely dated is the late 13th-century chancel, but evidence of an earlier building is afforded by the late 12th-century voussoirs reset over the south doorway of the south aisle [...] The font, which has a shallow cup-shaped bowl, is probably of the early 17th century, and the pyramidal wooden cover is of the same period." [NB: if Willis was the one who installed the new font here it is likely that the font is 18th-century, rather than 17th, unless Willis was seventeen-years old or yunger at the time]. The present font is located at the west end of the south aisle, just west of the south doorway. The church at Brickhill had been disused for a century and half when Willis had it restored in 1756 [cf. www.willisfleming.org.uk/browne_willis/brownewillis.html [accessed 12 April 2009] for more information]. [NB: we have no information on the earlier font of this church].

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 654890 5762951
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.995584, -0.743873
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 59′ 44.1″ N, 0° 44′ 37.94″ W

REFERENCES

  • Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. 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, [entry no.] 97
  • Sheahan, James Joseph, History and topography of Buckinghamshire, comprising a general survey of the county, preceded by an epitome of the early history of Great Britain, London; Pontefract: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts; William Edward Bonas [...], 1862, p. 492