Toller Fratrum / Little Toller / Tolre

There is an entry for Toller [Fratrum and Porcorum] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/XX0000/toller-fratrum-and-porcorum/] [accessed 28 January 2018], but it mentions neither cleric not church in it. The 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874) notes: "The only feature worthy of notice [in the rebult church] of the antiquary is the font. This, however, is highly curious and of great antiquity. It has a bowl of cylindrical shape. Near the rim is a shallow interlaced moulding about four inches deep, which has a small cable ornament at the bottom, below which, down to a small circular moulding (a species of chevron ornament), the whole of the bowl is covered with sculptured figures, evidently intended to represent some subject of church history." Noted in the Handbook for travellers... (1869): "a fine Norman font". Barnes (1891) illustrates the font and argues: "These interlaced designs, though continued into the Norman period, were used at an early date; in a Saxon MS. of the 8th century (Evangelia Sacra Nero D.4) are designs very similar to this [...]", and suggests an early Saxon date for this font. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Described in Holmes (1922): "Old font sculptured with the heads of what may be saints, a possible relic of Saxon times; some antiquaries have declared the work to be British of the later days of the Roman occupation". Noted in Long (1923) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. "a particularly rich example [...with] quaint figures on the bowl". A paper read before the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (1932), by R.H. White, notes the font and adds the following: "The carving may be a symbolical representation of the foundation of the Church of Christ, supported by the central figure of the Christ, together with His apostles, supporting the circular cornice, some, having laid down their lives as martyrs, being represented by the horizontal figures; while the two animal figures may represent the Holy Spirit and the Lamb of God [...] The font is thought to date back to early Saxon times". Mee (1939) writes: "The tub-shaped font may be Saxon; it is curiously carved with a medley of heads, thought to represent the Lion of Judah helping the human race as described in the Book of Revelation." Photographed by John Piper. Newman & Pevsner (1972) note that the composition of the font decoration is "hardly to be called that". Yapp (1987), who argues for an end-of-11th-century date, identifies the following scenes: "The first is Moses enabling the Israelites to defeat the Amelekites (Exodus 17: 8-16). The second represents a conflation of the story of the two serpents attacking a man (a type of the damned in Hell) and that of the worship of the golden calf (Exodus 32). In the last a group of three figures represents, either Christ or St. Michael saving souls from Hell." In Newman & Pevsner (1972). In Wood (1999). On-site notes: the baptismal font at Toller Fratrum has a most interesting and intriguing iconographic programme; the rim of the cylindrical font has a wide band of weaved pattern framed at the bottom by a moulding of rope motif, is held in both hands by a standing figure; to the right: a face at top, near his left arm; at bottom right, a human figure without legs; next right, a figure rests its right hand on the previous figure's head, while the left hand holds the upper rope motif; next right are two faces, one above the other, the lower one upside down; the next group of figures to the right make a strange composition: at the left side a wreathed column on which rest the legs of an animal (lion?) which faces right; its head serves also as the head to the other animal (lion?) on the right, facing left whose legs stand on two wreathed columns, front legs on one, back legs on another; in between the columns, under the one head a quadruped (bovine?) depicted vertically, legs to the left and three heads filling the gaps; to the right of the right animal's hind quarters three human figures appear to form a group, the rightmost one holding a processional cross; next on the right is a bearded male figure holding a tall staff-like object with a wide, rounded top in his right hand; a smaller legless figure holds, with his right arm, the left arm of the bearded figure; a representation of the sacrament of baptism may be part of the iconographic programme; the bottom of the basin sides has herringbone pattern; the font, which stands on a square plinth with kneeling stone, appears to have been cleaned recently [site visited on July 2000] and is in an excellent state of repair.