Staplehurst

Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

Results: 13 records

BBU01: design element - motifs - moulding - parallel - 3

Scene Description: on the finished sides of the basin

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of basin

Scene Description: showing the damaged side; if this damage occurred during the original carving it would have rendered the stone unfit for a standing font, but re-cyclable as wall-mounted basin with the damaged and back sides embedded in the wall [a case of 'waste not, want, not'?]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of basin - back side

Scene Description: the unfinished back of the basin, originally embedded in the wall

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of basin - interior

Scene Description: showing the centre drain [the fact that a drain was drilled in it may indicate that this was originally intended as a regular mounted font, but when the damage occurred during the carving of the side, the basin was then used as embedded in a wall]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of basin - upper view - detail

Scene Description: showing the transition between the finished sides and the unfinished back, both on the top surface, and on the mouldings on the side

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font

Scene Description: the old font; remounted? [cf. Font notes]

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font

Scene Description: the old font, remounted: the finished sides

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font

Scene Description: the old font, remounted: showing the four finished sides that stood out from the wall

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font

Scene Description: the unfinished back side, originally embedded in the wall

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font - upper view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font - upper view

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the 19th-century font and cover

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

view of font cover

Scene Description: the modern cover on the modern font

Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Andrew Brady, 2010

Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Andrew Brady for BSI

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (e-mail of 24 February 2010)

INFORMATION

FontID: 15954STA
Church/Chapel: Parish Church of All Saints
Church Patron Saints: All Saints
Country Name: England
Location: Kent, South East
Directions to Site: Located S of Maidstone
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Canterbury
Font Location in Church: [cf. FontNotes]
Century and Period: , Medieval
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Andrew Brady, of www.allsaintsstaplehurst.co.uk, for the information on, and photographs of the two fonts in this church
Glynne (1877) notes: "The font is an octagonal mass attached to one of the western piers". Glynne's description appears to conflict [cf. infra] with the description and illustration of the Parish website [http://www.allsaintsstaplehurst.co.uk/church_tour_2.html#font] [accessed 5 February 2010]: "Two fonts can be seen; the original, battered by time was placed below the pulpit after being rediscovered as a feeding trough on a local farm. (Arthur Mee has a touching story of it being identified by a blind woman). It is carved from a single block of very hard Kentish ragstone, unlike any other used in the church. It may originally have been placed in a recess as the back is not carefully shaped and the carving stops at the half-way line. It was replaced by a new font in 1815 which stood by the south door. During the re-ordering of 1995 [1992?], this new font was moved to the west porch and the original placed in its present position by the wide pier between the chancel and the chapel." The old font has an octagonal basin that appears badly damaged on one half, partly missing it, raised on a roundstem and a square lower base, the last two parts probably modern. [NB: it is not known whether the original stone was deffective from the quarry, perhaps a reject, or if it became damaged during the carving, which prompted the workshop to sell it as a reject to be embedded or wall-mounted. In any case, the object is finished only on four sides, and remained unfinished on the rest of it]. The new font has a cauldron-shaped basin raised on four colonnettes and a round-to-square lower base; Victorian, as is its flat and round wooden cover].

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, limestone (Kentish ragstone)
Font Shape: polygonal (wall-mounted)
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: polygonal

REFERENCES

Glynne, Steven Richard, Sir, Notes on the churches of Kent, London: John Murray, 1877