Walton / Waletone / Walton-on-the-Hill / Walton on the Hill nr. Liverpool

There is an entry for this Walton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SJ3695/walton-on-the-hill/] [accessed 23 July 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Butterworth (1841) notes: "the ancient font is interesting". W.J. Roberts' letter to Sylvanus Urban, editor of the Gentleman's Magazine (issue of October 1845: 370) mentions a visit to the Parish of Walton-on-the-Hill, in the county of Lancaster, where a church had existed "in the time of Edward the Confessor"; of that building, adds Roberts, "in the burial grounds there are the vestiges of a font, which, no doubt, from its form and appearance, belonged to that early era. About ninety years ago [i.e., ca. 1755] it was thrown out of the church, and was superseded by a more uncanonical one"; the landlord of the tavern adjoining the churchyard "eyeing the desecrated font, without any qualms of conscience, appropriated it to the service of his Bacchanalian chapel, placing it by the door to serve as a stepping-stone to enable his customers to mount their horses; where it lay in the year 1817 [...]; subsequently it was removed to the spot it now occupies. Its form is circular, about three feet diameter. On its circumference there are six projecting panels, which, with the divisions formed by them, are covered with sculptured figures in high relief, very much mutilated by being exposed to the weather and the more destructive violence of man, rendering it impossible to decipher their once intelligible character. The remains in one compartment appear to be a representation of 'Christ's entrance into Jerusalem." Much of that information is reproduced in Ellis (1902), who identifies "The Temptation" and "an unconventional representation of flight into Egypt:, adding that it is "an interesting specimen of early Norman workmanship, and dates probably from the time of Edward the Confessor", dating which Ellis credits The Gentleman's Magazine text of 1845 [cf. supra]. Noted in the Victoria County History (Lancaster, vol. 3, 1907), as "a relic of the ancient church, now restored to use after many years of desecration, having been turned out of the church in 1754, and used as a mounting stone by the door of a neighbouring inn. It has a circular bowl on which are six arched panels containing figure sculpture, the intervening spaces having floral patterns. The figure-subjects are damaged and indistinct, but one shows the Temptation of Adam and Eve --as on the font at Kirkby-- and another has been interpreted as the Flight to Egypt." Romilly Allen (1884) points out that the Virgin is represented with a nimbus on this font. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as an archaic stone basin probably of the early 12th century, ornamented with motifs and figural scenes; it probably rested on the ground or on a simple plinth, but at some point since it was mounted on a set of grooved shafts of later date. "At Walton, near Liverpool, is represented the Flight into Egypt; the Blessed Virgin rides on an ass, over her head is a cross; St. Joseph carries the Babe" (ibid.) "At Walton, near Liverpool, is another archaic font, on which are shewn Adam and Eve, and an angel with a sword expelling them from Paradise" (ibid.); the font includes also a representation of the Virgin and Child. Studied with an illustration in Rommilly Allen (1884). The basin appears rougly cylindrical and the carving archaic and rather crude; the shafts of the base, including the one in the centre, have ugly capitals and bases decorated with foliage motifs; the outer ones have torsade pattern on the columns, but the column at the centre is plain. Noted in Pevsner (1969): "Font. Originally Norman, but cruelly hacked about. The top moulding is now an impossible coarse egg-and-dart, and below are the Flight into Egypt, St John the Baptist, and Adam and Eve." Pollard & Pevsner (2006) add: "Broken into pieces in 1941 and restored by E. Carter Preston." [NB: not to be mistaken with another "Walton on the Hill", located in Surrey, just south of London, that has a lead font entry in this Index]