Battlefield

INFORMATION

Font ID: 16233BAT
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 19th century, Victorian
Workshop/Group/Artisan: Samuel Pountney Smith
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene [aka Battlefield Church]
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary Magdalene
Site Location: Shropshire, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on the A49, 5 km N of Shrewsbury
Font Notes:
A late baptismal font is noted in Newman & Pevsner (2006) as a handsome piece made "by Pountney Smith" [i.e., Samuel Pountney Smith (1812-1883), a native of Munslow and a Shrewsbury architect]. Newman & Pevsner (2006) note that this church was "founded as a chantry chapel for the celebration of daily masses for the souls of those slain in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, and built over the mass grave of the victims […] The church survived because it became parochial, replacing Albright Hussey". [NB: we have no information on the precise date when Battlefield Church started its parochial functions, though it could have been the time of the 18th-century restoration]]