Babcary / Babachay [Domesday] / Babecari

Results: 5 records

view of church exterior - southeast view

Font image
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Barbara Voules, 2007
Image Source: digital photograph taken 25 July 2007 by Barbara Voules [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Babcary_Church.jpg] [accessed 31 January 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0

INFORMATION

Font ID: 14577BAB
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 14th - 15th century [basin only] [composite font], Medieval [composite]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of the Holy Cross
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, at the W end of the nave, S side, by the S doorway
Church Patron Saint(s): The Holy Cross
Church Address: Church Street, Babcary TA11 7DT , UK -- Tel.: (01458) 223449
Site Location: Somerset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (E) the A37, just NE of Charlton Adams, 16 km N of Yeovil
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bath & Wells
Historical Region: Hundred of Blachethorna
Additional Comments: altered font (the present one had a new base installed in the 19thC) -- disappeared font (the one from the ca. 1200 church here)
Font Notes:
There are two entries for Babcary [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST5628/babcary/] [accessed 31 January 2018], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Phelps (1836) writes: "The font is richly sculptured". In Kelly's Directory of 1883: "font of the fifteenth century". Described in Pevsner (1958): "Octagonal, Perp[endicular], with panelled stem, panelled underside of the bowl, and quatrefoils on the bowl." The sides of the octagonal basin have floral motifs inscribed in large quatrefoils; the underbowl chamfer is very tall and becomes narrow at the base, much narrower than most Perpendicular fonts, to a small ring moulding and the very slender pedestal base; the underbowl and the stem are decorated with trefoiled arches or windows, two per side on the underbowl, single ones on the stem. The wooden cover is octagonal and flat, with metal decoration and ring handle. [NB: description based on a photograph by ChurchCrawler in http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/SOM/Babcary/HolyCross2.html [accessed 16 September 2009]]. The Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 10, 2011) notes: "The church was recorded in 1200 [...] It was rebuilt in a simple Perpendicular style during the 14th century or early 15th [...] [in the] restoration between 1875 and 1877 [...] The Perpendicular font was reset on a new base".

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 526134 5656185
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.0566, -2.6271
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 3′ 23.76″ N, 2° 37′ 37.56″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

LID INFORMATION

Date: 19th-century?
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

  • Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
  • Kelly, Eric Robert, Kelly's Directory of Somersetshire with the city of Bristol, London: Kelly & Co., 1883, p. 24
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, South and West Somerset, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958, p. 79
  • Phelps, William (Revd.), The History and Antiquities of Somersetshire; being a general and parochial survey [...] [vol. 1], London: Printed for the author , by J. B. Nichols and Son, 1836, vol. 1: 444 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=IAQVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA589&lpg=PA589&dq=butleigh+church+font&source=bl&ots=YU0c4LRPgk&sig=u9wX07aEBfabcQ5OyhJwDvZHqXg&hl=en&ei=NcH9SYDHKY-UMtOp0c8E&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#PPP7,M1] [accessed 3 May 2009]