Fonthill
Gifford and Fonthill Bishop, Wiltshire
Click on photos to enlarge
Notes in italics from Wiltshire by Nikolaus Pevsner
Revised by Bridget Cherry (1975)
Yale University Press, New Haven and London |
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Gateway of Fonthill Abbey.
Architecturally the most important of the remains of Fonthill is .. the
gateway from Bishop's Fonthill. It is on a monumental scale, tripartite,
with a big arch in the centre and lower balustraded one-bay side-pieces.
The centre has a heavy pediment. The angle pilasters supporting have
intermittent rocky rustication. The same motif round the arch. The head in
the keystone hardly visible in its rocky surface. To the outside the
gateway is continued by retaining walls with vases. They end in big piers.
Now all this is attributed by Rutter in 1823 to Inigo Jones on the
strength of local tradition (mid-1600s). ...
The style of the gateway makes Jones's authorship quite acceptable. Some
recent authorities, e.g. Mr John Harris, consider however that the gateway
dates from the time of Alderman Beckford (mid-1700s. He
was father of William Beckford who built the famous Gothic Fonthill Abbey
early in the next century and of which little remains).
More
about Fonthill Abbey |
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Holy Trinity, Fonthill Gifford.
(The church faces north-east rather than east). Built
for the Marquess of Westminster in 1866 by T.H. Wyatt, alas to replace a
pretty classical church of 1748, built for Alderman Beckford. ... Wyatt's
church is bigger of course and, it must be admitted, groups extremely
picturesquely from the E with its NE tower with a spire rising between
pyramid pinnacles, an apse, and a round turret to its N (not
shown). The tower serves as a porch and has short alabaster
columns. Inside two-bay transepts, again short, fat piers, and much rich
foliage carving by Mr. Sansom. The chancel and arch are low and
rib-vaulted. Alabaster pulpit (with carved medallions
of the heads of the four evangelists). |
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All Saints, Fonthill Bishop.
A complete little E.E. church (Early
English, 13th century) with a crossing tower, though
over-restored (T.H. Wyatt, 1879) and with a rebuilt chancel. The tower ..
has single-light chamfered bell-openings.
More
about All Saints, Fonthill Bishop |
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Map
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