St. Mary Bourne / Borne / Saint Mary Bourne / Seynt Marie Borne / Saynt Marye Borne

No individual entry for St Mary Bourne found in the Domesday survey. The National Gazetteer of 1868 reports "a curious font, hewn out of a block of black marble". White (1878) describes it as "of the same age and workmanship as that at Winchester Cathedral". Described and illustrated in Stevens (1880), who notes the font here as being of the same time and medium, and probably made by the same hand, as the font at Winchester Cathedral, and reports three other such fonts in Hampshire: East Meon, Southampton St. Michael's and Middleton. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as one of "four noble examples of black Belgium marble" fonts of the Norman period. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as one of several magnificent Tournai fonts found in England [cf. Index entries for East Meon, Lincoln Minster, St. Michael's in Southampton, Winchester, etc.] The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911) notes: "St. Mary Bourne has from time immemorial been a chapelry dependent upon the mother church of Hurstbourne Priors [...] The building is one of the most puzzling in the county. No details earlier than the second half of the 12th century are now to be seen, but the thick west wall of the south chapel, cut away to adapt it to the capital of the third pier of the south arcade, clearly belongs to an older state of things. It must have formed part of a south transept or, what is more likely, a south tower, and a weathering on its west face shows that a south aisle of the same width as that now existing was standing at the time. [...] The font is one of the few resembling that of Winchester Cathedral to be found in Hampshire churches; only the bowl remains, the stem being a modern round one. The former is 3 ft. 6 in. square" [NB: the VCH entry (ibid.) is footnoted to an earlier description of the font in VCH (vol. 2: 244]. Noted in Pevsner (1967). Described and illustrated in Drake (2002). On-site notes: the inner well of the basin is lined with lead; two holes at the upper rim have now been filled but indicate the placement of hinges of a previous lid; on the upper basin surface, a floral band encircles the bowl; on the north-west and south-east spandrels repeated motif of two birds drinking from the same vase, whereas the north-east spandrel has an acanthus motif, and the south-west corner has a plant with a cross; ribbed pattern ornaments the underbowl. A very large font consisting of two separate blocks: the bowl is square with a round interior basin; the present base, which is modern, consists of one large centre pillar, with four attached columns raised on a plinth. Earlier images of this font [Eden (1909) for instance] show it raised on a cylindrical concrete column which replaced the lost original base [NB: that base is now [May 2011] in the churchyard serving as planter]. The new base and plinth are one-piece, carved in 1926 in memory of "Lloyd Breadmore and William Longman" according to a brass plaque hanging in the church [visited July 1998]. The sides of the bowl are ornamented: the west side has a blind arcade of eight round arches (2 encircle the corners) with two, identical motifs. The motif shows two doves or peacocks drinking from the same vase. The south side has two large branches of leaves and grapes. The east side has the same motif of branches and grapes. The north side has six blind arches with fleur-de-lis motifs in the spandrels. [NB: an illustrated and interpretative description of this font can be found at the Parish website, http://www.stmarybourne.org.uk/Font%20guide.htm [accessed 12 January 2011]