Norman Font - St Mary - West Buckland, Somerset
Posted by: SMacB
N 50° 58.657 W 003° 10.729
30U E 487446 N 5647351
A Norman font of Purbeck marble dating from around 1140, in St Mary's church, West Buckland.
Waymark Code: WM12MY7
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/18/2020
Views: 2
A square font of Purbeck marble dating from around 1140. On two sides is carved a 4-bay arcade , on the other two are 15th century leaf carvings.
The present church of St Mary the Virgin, with its nave dating probably from the years 1275-1300, stands on the site of an earlier building established in Norman times.
"It is a phenomenon noticeable in most counties that Norman fonts were preserved piously in churches where everything else was replaced and rebuilt. Whatever the reason, Somerset also possesses a large number of Norman fonts, many entirely plain, others enriched by just a band of cable-moulding or of saltire crosses, others with some bold scalloping of the underside of the bowl, one, two, three scallops (one: Hinton Blewett, N; two: Edington, Leigh, N; three: Cameley, N, Weston-super-Mare), yet others of the well-known
Purbeck type, square with small blank arcading (Templecombe, Odcombe, Milborne Port, Crewkerne,
West Buckland, Brushford — all in the S and W), also some with intersected arches (West Camel, Corfe, Halse) and so on to Lullington (N), the most ornate of all, and to Churchstanton
which is of the Cornish type of Bodmin with four faces in the corners, and to Ile Abbots with a savage animal."
SOURCE - (
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[South and West Somerset
Buildings of England
Pevsner architectural guides
Pevsner buildings of England series
Author Nikolaus Pevsner
ISBN 0300096445, 9780300096446
Page 53]