Wychling / Wichling

Noted in Fryer (1900) as a lead basin "which was dug up a few years ago from out of a mass of brickwork", dating from the end of the Early English or the beginning of the Decorated period, the ornamentation of which "consists of a geometrical pattern [...] which is repeated ten times." In Livett (1905), after Fryer, as one of three Kentish lead fonts [the others at Brookland and Eythorne]. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a "leaden bowl of 13th-cent. date. Listed in Bond (1908) simply as a lead font with decoration other than figures or arcading. Wall (1912) writes: "a few years since a font bowl of lead was dug up at Wychling, Kent. At intervals around its circumference are most chaste and delicate scrolls flowing from an upright stem. It is now encased in a frame of wood to support the fragile metal, but so well arranged that no feature of the original work is lost to view." Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) without description or date. Newman (1976) suggests a dating towards the end of the 12th century: "The decoration consists of a ten times repeated clump of wraith-like leaveson a stem. The unfeeling modern wooden framework ought to be removed."