All Saints, Shipdham, Norfolk

I Location

Site Location: Shipdham
National Grid Reference: TF 958 073
County: traditional: Norfolk
now: Norfolk
Diocese: medieval: East Anglia
now: Norwich
Dedication: medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): All Saints
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

All Saints has a chancel, nave, N aisle and 13thc. W tower, distinctively surmounted by a three-tier timber lantern that may date from the 16thc.. In the chancel, the late 12thc. door and piscina have pointed arches. The 14thc. N aisle has an impressive timber roof. There is a two-storeyed S porch with an ogee niche. The font is the only feature with Romanesque sculpture.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

: Font, W face.

: Font, N face.

: Font, E face.

: Font, S face.

: Font, bases.

(i)

Located at the W end of the N aisle. The basin is square, and chamfered at the angles, The S, N and W faces are carved with three bays of blind arcading. The S face also has a row of zig-zag just below the level of the rim. The E face is carved with a large relief rosette within a circle, edged with a row of zig-zag. The lower edge of the basin is chamfered, but as this cuts into the rosette it must be a later alteration. The basin is supported by five free-standing colonnettes with elongated attic bases on square plinths, short columns and either double scallop (NW), cushion (SW) or block (NE; SE and central) capitals above necking. Some of the supports are monolithic. The limestone of the basin is yellowish, coarse and densely shelly. That of the supports is smoother and cream-coloured. There is damage at the NW and SE corners of the basin and a cement repair around the lower portion. The rim bears traces of metal plugs, doubtless the remains of fixings for a lid.

Dimensions

total h.	1.06m
h. of basin	0.40m
h. of colonnettes	0.64m
w. of basin	0.77m

VII History

Shipdham, in the hundred of Mitford, was an outlying estate of the royal manor of Aylsham, held by Gyrth before 1066 and by Godric after the Norman Conquest

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

Domesday Book: Norfolk, P. Brown (ed), London and Chichester, 2 vols, 1984.
N. Pevsner and B. Wilson, The Buildings of England: Norfolk: North-West and South, Harmondsworth, 1962, revised 1999, 2:645-6