Edburton

No entry found for Edburton in the Domesday survey. Reported in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848: "The font, which is of lead, is of early Norman character." Noted in Hussey (1852): "The font is circular and of lead" [Hussey cites "Cartwright, who gives a plate".] Studied and illustrated in Andre (1882), who points out its similarities with the font at Pyecombe, and describes the decoration as "a series of square panels enclosing scroll and foliage work of an almost Early English type", but dates it together with the one at Pyecombe "of late Norman date" [source: http://sac.pastfinders.org/sac_032_leaden_fonts.htm] [accessed 2 August 2006]]. In Lethaby (1893) as Early English. A 1906 photograph of this font at the Muggeridge Collections of the Library, University of Kent at Canterbury [UKC-CHR-MUG-BW.F213362] [Acession no.: F213362] [www.kent.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/mills/r.php/22986/show.html] [accessed 30 October 2012]. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a lead baptismal font which, like the one at Pyecombe, "approach the close of the Norman style" its ornamentation. Listed in Bond (1908). Harrison (11920) notes: "The leaden font dates from 1180, late Tr[ansitional]-Nor[man] (Cf. Pyecombe and Parham)." Described and illustrated in Zarnecki (1957) as a "font made in the same workshop as the one at Pyecombe. It is probably a little later, for the foliage used is of the 'stiff-leaf' type, characteristic of the early Gothic period." The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 6, pt. 3, 1987) notes: "The existing building is chiefly late 13th- and early 14th-century [...] Portions of walling remain from an earlier church, to which the remarkable font evidently belonged; it is of lead, decorated with an arcade and scrolls, and was made c. 1180." On-site notes: a cylindrical lead font similar to several others, including the one at Pyecombe, also in Sussex; the upper rim is edged and has two protrusions at opposite sides, possibly to be used as handles, but more likely to secure the lid to; the basin sides have three registers, the upper one with a blind arcade of treefoil arches, the middle and lower registers ornamented with foliage; there is clear discolouration on the lower part of the basin, the information leaflet at the church suggests it is due to its "having been buried a few inches deep in a field outside by the Roundhead soldiers, and used as a horse-trough"; the stone base and the cone-shaped wooden lid are of a later date. Since the present church was built in the late-13th and early-14th centuries the font is probably from the old church said to have been built in the 10th century by Edburga, grand-daughter of Alfred the Great, but cannot claim the original age of that church.