St. Michael Church / Michaeliscerce / Michelscerca / St. Michaelchurch [disappeared?]

INFORMATION

Font ID: 14678MIC
Object Type: Baptismal Font1?
Font Century and Period/Style: 14th century, Medieval
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Michael
Church Address: Maunsel Rd, North Newton, Bridgwater TA7 0BU, UK -- Tel.: +44 1278 662429
Site Location: Somerset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off (N) the A361, E of the M5, 8 km S of Bridgwater, 11 km ENE of Taunton
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bath & Wells
Historical Region: Hundred of North Petherton
Additional Comments: disappeared font? (the one from the 11thC (?) church here)
Font Notes:
There is an entry for St. Michael Church [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/ST3030/st-michael-church/] [accessed 10 April 2018], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Jeboult (1873) writes: "The font is of Ham Hill stone, and is about one hundred years old." [NB: this same source describes the church as being from the 14th century, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 6, 1992) notes: "The Domesday name Michelscerca [...] and parts of the present building [...] are evidence for an 11th-century church. It was probably part of the minster parish of North Petherton and linked with an independent, perhaps pre-Conquest, manor [...] The proportions of the building and part of the north wall of the nave apparently survive from the 11th century [...] There is a plain octagonal medieval font."

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, Ham Hill stone

REFERENCES

  • Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
  • Jeboult, Edward, A General Account of West Somerset, description of the Valley of the Tone, and the history of the twon of Taunton, Taunton: Somerset and Bristol Steam-press, 1873, p. 83