Hadleigh nr. Southend-on-Sea

A print of this font, ca. 1840-1850, is listed in the SEAX Essex Record Office database [http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/result_details.asp?DocID=204067] [accessed 8 July 2010]: "[Print of font in Hadleigh Church] Scope and Content Engraving, produced for the 'A.E.C.[Antiquarian Etching Club] Pl.29, Vol.2' c. 1850 by H W K [H W King] Transferred to E.R.O. Library May 1949 - now in Mint Binder 29 - Hadleigh or see I/Mb 158/1/3]. Described with some measurements in Benton (1867-1888) who reports: "The original shaft of this font was buried in a grave at the north east end of the churchyard". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907): "An octagon bowl on a bold moulding of circular plan sculptured with trefoil leaves"; they report also on the palindrome inscription [cf. infra]. Bond (1908) lists the 13th-century font at Hadleigh, Essex [as well as the one at Hadleigh, Suffolk, among others] as one bearing the palindrome inscription "ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ", "Cleanse your sin, not your face only" [NB: not known where on the font or cover this inscription appears]. The font has an octagonal basin with plain vertical sides; the underbowl is slightly rounded and ornamented with what Bond describes as "a band of 'wind-blown' foliage" (ibid.) The base consists of a cluster of five detached colonnettes, one at the centre and four on the outside, all of the same size, all with moulded capitals and bases; the lower base and plinth are cylindrical and plain [NB: there is no sight of the inscription mentioned by Bond in this illustration]. Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: made up of octagonal bowl, separate lower part carved with stiff-leaf foliage, probably recut, 13th-century, stem and base modern." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Made up of vatious parts. The best is the lower part of the bowl with stiff-leaf growing diagonally." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add the date, "C13". The RCHM (ibid.) inventories also a holy-water stoup of the 15th century in the S porch of this church [no separate entry in this Index]. [NB: there is no mention of the cover or the inscription in the RCHM]. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: TQ8101287025] notes: "Parish church. Mid C12, C18, C19 and C20 alterations […] Octagonal font, plain bowl, stiff leaf carvings to soffit, stem of central and 4 side columns with moulded capitals and bases, chamfered base, C20 ribbed cover."