Old Radnor / Maes-hyved Hen / Pencraig

Noted in Lewis' Dictionary of 1833 and 1849, and in the National Gazetteer of 1868. In Barnwell (1864). Vat-like baptismal font with its lower part cut into four crude feet. Described and illustrated in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as "a very remarkable example of an early font which appears to have been fashioned from a Druidical altar"; later he adds that the font "bears a strong resemblance to altars used in early Semitic worship, and in ealy Christian times seems to have been found handy for conversion into a font by roughly hollowing out a basin in it." Bond (1908) refers to this font as a "remarkable and very large example" of cases in which "the builders were unable to bring accurately to shape" the material they started with. Bond (ibid.) found it striking that so rudimentary an obejct would be so highly polished, and set to wonder about its makers: "One can hardly help speculating that at some Pre-Christian period this great block of stone was found in situ or hard by; that it was naturally nearly circular in form; that the natives gave it a flat top, and cut away its base into the present four legs; and then with incredible patient toil brought it to a high polish; and that it became a sacred stone; perhaps an altar[...]. In later days, probably Pre-Conquest days, the great block was utilised as a font, a cavity being hollowed in the top of it; [...] the cavity was not cut when this polishing took place, for it is very rough. The probability is, therefore, that the cavity was cut in Christian times to adapt the block for use as a font, and that it was left rough as it was intended to line it with lead. There are indeed signs that at some time it actually was lined with lead" (ibid.) Thurlby (2006) comments on the 8th-century date: "that is difficult to substantiate". Noted in the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, Recent Grants [...] 16 March 2006 [www.historicchurches.org.uk] as a baptismal font of the 8th century. The font is now raised on an octagonal plinth. Jenkins (2008) writes: "The tub font is said to date from the 8th century, a misshapen lump of rock, yet eerily scluptural like a work by Henry Moore." Shipton (2012) writes of a visit of a members of the Fforwm Cerrig Cymru/Welsh Stone Forum to Old Radnor: "Inside the church was an old font made of local altered Stanner-Hanter Complex gabbro, it was thought to date from about the C8th [...] The group spent some time inspecting it but a positive identification of its origin was not possible."