Birdham / Bridgeham / Brideham / Bridham

Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 13 April 2025)

Results: 8 records

Click to view images and/or subjects

view of church exterior - south view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 13 April 2025)

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 June 2008 by Mark Collins [www.roughwood.net]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - nave - looking east

Scene Description: photograph taken from behind the font, the tip of the font cover in the foreground

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 June 2008 by Mark Collins [www.roughwood.net]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church interior - window - detail

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 13 April 2025)

view of font and cover

Scene Description: the modern font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 June 2008 by Mark Collins [www.roughwood.net]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover - west side

Scene Description: the modern font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 13 April 2025)

view of font and cover in context

Scene Description: the modern font, at the west end of the nave, just east of the tower arch

Image Source: digital photograph taken 16 June 2008 by Mark Collins [www.roughwood.net]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font and cover in context - west side

Scene Description: the modern font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 15 August 2024 by Colin Smith

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 13 April 2025)

INFORMATION

FontID: 16814BIR

Church/Chapel: Parish Church of St. James [St. Leonard's till 1900]

Church Patron Saints: St. James [before 1900 it was dedicated to St. Leonard]

Church Location: Church Lane, Birdham, West Sussex, Un ited Kingdom

Country Name: England

Location: West Sussex, South East

Directions to Site: Located off the A286, 6 km SW of Chichester

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Chichester

Historical Region: Hundred of Wittering [in Domesday] -- Hundred of Manhood [aka La Manwode/Manwood] -- Rape of Chichester -- Sussex

Century and Period: 12th century (early?), Medieval

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Mark Collins, of www.roughwood.net, and to Colin Smith for their photographs of church and modern font

Font Notes: Click to view font notes

There is an entry for Birdham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SU8200/birdham/] [accessed 14 April 2025]; it mentions neither priest nor vhutvh in it. The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of December 1804: 1102) reports a plain square font in this church. The entry for Birham in Harrison (1920) notes: "The font is modern". The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 4, 1953) notes: "The church of Birdham was among those given with that of Boxgrove to the Abbey of Lessay by Robert de Hay in 1105." The VCH (ibid.) reports a modern font located beneath the tower arch. The present font is indeed modern: octagonal basin with moulded upper rim and underbowl, raised on clustered columns with moulded capitals and bases, and located just east of the tower arch; it must have replaced the medieval font noted in The Gentleman's Magazine above [NB: we have no information on the present whereabouts of the earlier font]

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 652781 5629472

LID INFORMATION

Date: 19th-century?

Material: wood, oak?

Apparatus: no

Notes: octagonal and flat, with metal decoration and ring handle; appears modern

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2010-07-20 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.

Harrison, Frederick, Notes on Sussex churches, Hove: Combridges, 1920