Diddlebury / Duddelebury / Dudelebury / Dudenebury

INFORMATION

Font ID: 16286DID
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 15th century, Perpendicular
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Peter
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Peter
Church Notes: The Sheela Na Gig project [http://www.sheelanagig.org/index.html#http://www.sheelanagig.org/SheelaDiddlebury.htm] [accessed 1 April 2010] describes the claim that a sculpture in this church can be identified as a Sheela as "somewhat dubious […] However it is so damaged that it is hard to say what it originally was meant to represent. It appears to a torso with the remnants of two legs and what could be a jutting out neck. There is no evidence of any sexual organs carved between the legs."
Site Location: Shropshire, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on the B4368, 8 km NE of Craven Arms
Additional Comments: disappeared font?
Font Notes:
Anderson (1864) notes that the church of St. Peter, mentioned by name in Domesday Book, had been granted to Shrewsbury Abbey by Roger de Mortimer [1st Earl of Shrewsbury (d. 1094)]. Newman & Pevsner (2006) date the nave "Late Saxon", but describe the baptismal font in it as octagonal, of the Perpendicular period [NB: we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

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

REFERENCES

  • Anderson, John Corbet, Shropshire, its early history and antiquities, comprising […], London: Willis and Sotheran, 1864, p. 311-312
  • Newman, John, Shropshire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, p. 245