Youghal No. 1

Described in Hayman (1854-1855): "fine Decorated baptismal font [...] octagonal, supported on four moulded pillars terminating in four ogee arches, their spandrils sunk and filled with vine-leaves; and in the centre of the four pillars is one of larger size with pointed arches springing to each outer one, affording a good specimen of Gothic groining. Over the font is an ogee-shaped cover of timber, on which was formerly a dove of the natural size". Hayman also informs that the font had been previously located in a corner of the north transept, but had been moved by the then rector [i.e., ca. 1854?] to the intersection of the nave and transepts, mounted on a platform [plinth?] made in part by a fragment of an old tomb-stone decorated with "a rich cross fleury inscribed in a wheel". Noted in The Ecclesiologist (no. CXLVII, December 1861: 372): "The font is curious, of octagonal form, the lower part having ogee open arches on the alternate sides, so as to show the stem within." The font is also described, and its change of location reported in Buckley (1903), who provides an early plan of the church showing the location of the font still at the western end of the nave; Buckley dates the cover to the reign of Charles II [i.e., 1660-1685]. Described in Pike (1989: 52-53): medieval baptismal font no longer in use; it has an inscription attached -but not inscribed on the font- which reads: "Baptismal Font originally inside the West door, circa 1350"; as this font is octagonal, it would seem that this date should be a century later; it has a central pedestal with four pods and also the original, octagonal base; the decoration is a fern design in low relief on the panels of the bowl with under fluting below the panels in place of chamfer; the font has a wooden font cover, carved in an Ogee curve, with a bird carved in wood on the top; the central drainage hole is blocked. [NB: although Hayman gives the location of the font in the nave at the transepts, his plan (p. opposite p. 163) shows the location by the last collumn on the left, at the western end of the church]. Listed in TARA [ http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/25896] [accessed 27 April 2023]: "Octagonal baptismal font with hexagonal supporting shafts running from angles of bowl. Moulding comprises frontal mitre flanked at either side by quadrant, hollow chamfer, flat surface, hollow and rear mitre. Rare survival of Decorated font." [cf. Index entry for Youghal No. 2 for a holy-water stoup of about the same period in this church]