Potterne No. 1

Noted in The Antiquary (isssue of February 10th, 1872, p. 30): "Digging in the nave of Potterne church a few days ago, the workmen came upon a curious old font, which must have been there centuries ago. The inscription upon it appears to be 1st verse of the xlii Psalm:-- '+SICUT CERVUS DESIDERAT AD FONTES AQUARUM ITA DESIDERAT ANIMA MEA AD TE DEUS. AMEN.'" Described in Jones (1876) with illustrations by Edward Kite. Jones mentions three fonts in this church at the time, and he describes this one as "the most interesting object in the whole Church, [...] undoubtedly of great antiquity, and very probably dates from before the Norman Conquest", buried right under the new 13th-century font, where "it remained until, during the recent [1872] restorations, it was discovered and exhumed." Jones (ibid.) dates it "probably [...] of the tenth century", and gives an account of the opinions on the object by "Mr. Christian, the architect under whose direction the recent restoration was carried out" [Jones obviously respected the views of the said architect, who, in regards the dating of the font, states: "I should without hesitation assign the date of its execution to early Saxon times"]. The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine (vol. XIX (1881): 132) reports on an excursion to Potterne [inter alia] by members of the British Archaeological Association, on the occasion of their congress meetin at Devizes. The group of archaeologists visited the church on 17 August 1881: "a good deal of attention was directed to the old font, which was found buried beneath the one now in use while the excavations were being made on the restoration of the Church a few years ago. The font is circular in form, very massive, and it is conjectured that it belonged to an early Saxon Church supposed to have existed in another part of the parish, where traces of earlier interments are to be found." Romilly Allen (1888) informs that the font "was discovered in the year 1872, buried four feet below the present one. It is of oolite, and both shaped like a tub and made like one, the bottom being a separate stone fixed in with lead". He provides the measurements for the font and, based on the evidence of the lettering and the design and shape, suggests a date for the font "to the end of the eleventh century." On the Latin inscription -"which was examined by many of the members of the Devizes Congress in 1880", Romilly Allen (ibid.) identifies it as "the text from the Vulgate version of the Psalms (xlii, 1)" and states that "Three of the letters are of forms similar to those used in Saxon times, namely, the S made like Z, the square C, and the D made like an O with a tail at the top facing to the left." Described and illustrated in Bond (1908): "Nearly always the bowl of a font is hollowed out of a single block. Exceptions are the ancient font at Potterne [...] and the famous font at St Martin's, Canterbury". (ibid.) [he later quotes Romilly Allen verbatim (ibid.) The basin of this font is bucket-shaped and plain except for a protruding rim on which appears an inscription [regarding the inscription Bond notes (ibid.) that the text of the first two verses of Psalm 42: 1 are "not from the Vulgate, but from an alternative version of St Jerome used in the Anglo-Saxon baptismal service. Bond (ibid.) also states that the font was originally unmounted, but that it has "been supplied with legs [3] at some modern restoration" [cf. Romilly Allen supra about the base ca. 1888]. Bond (ibid.) refers to Romilly Allen who attributed a date of the end of the 11th century to this font, and agrees (ibid.) that a date to the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century can be assigned "on account of the palæological peculiarities of the inscriptions". The Wiltshire Notes and Queries issue for June 1895 carry a communication by Ephraim Gardiner in which he reproduces a statement by the architect of the 1872 renovation, Mr. Christian, in which the said architect remarks on the characters of the inscription: "Those most nearly resembling them are to be found in a copy of St. Cuthbert's Gospels in the British Museum, the date of which is given as the beginning of the eighth century", and on the date of the font: "I should without hesitation assign the date of its execution to early Saxon times." Described also in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a Saxon font inscribed with text of Psalm xlii, and that it wast discovered in 1872, buried four feet below its successor. Noted in Holmes (1922) as "the archaic tub-shaped font, now standing at the end of the church"; Holmes gives the text of the inscription quoted from Psalms xlii: 1. Noted and described in Buck (1950), who identifies the stone: "very similar to that known as Corsham Stone, a grey oolite of fine grain", and informs about its appearance before the three-support base was added [as seen in Kite's engraving of ca. 1876]: "The present bottom stone of the font is separate from the tapering sides and the junction was made watertight by running in molten lead. This suggests that the original bottom, which was probably not so thick as the present stone, became damaged and was replaced in the manner now seen; it is most unlikely that the inner basin would have been hollowed out without leaving a bottom to it in the original stone.. A large jagged hole, certainly not in connection to its use as a font, has been made in the present bottom stone, which implies that when the old church fell into ruin this font, like many others, was appropriated for secular use, say, on a neighbouring farm; later, when its original purpose was appreciated, it was taken to the church and buried beneath the present font in order to preserve it from further desecration [...] There is no lead lining in the inner basin; also, there are no marks of fastenings for the cover [...] The inner edge of the rim, however, is recessed as if to take a flat cover." With regards the inscription and the date, Buck (ibid.) notes: "The lettering has been recut since the font was disinterred [...] The date of the font is considered to be late tenth or early eleventh century, that is, during the revival of church-building initiated by St. Dunstan. This has been confirmed by comparing the lettering with manuscripts of this period in the British Museum [...]" Betjeman (1958) has: "inscribed Norman tub font". Davey (1964) argues convincingly that the font belonged originally to an early baptistery [10th-12th centuries], where it was sunk at floor level, later being moved to the new church; he argues that the inscription may have been added later. Taylor (1965-1978) argues for an even earlier date using the inscription, which he states, matches the text of the so-called Roman psalter used in Anglo-Saxon England -8th century to ca. 950, instead of the one in the Gallican psalter of later date; Taylor resolves : "There thus seems little doubt that this inscription belongs to the tenth century or earlier." As further proof of his argument Taylor (ibid.) adds that the Anglo-Saxon angular shape of the letters C and S, "which has been used in support of an Anglo-Saxon date, [...] is used throughout at Potterne". Taylor (ibid.) further goes into details about the location of this font in the original wooden church, where excavation have "disclosed a circular seating cut into the greensand floor of the south porticus with dimensions which match those of the base of the font." [cf. Romilly Allen supra for the mention of a round base] Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Tuib-shaped, Anglo-Saxon, with a Latin inscription along the rim". The photograph [ca. 1908?] in Bond (1908) is different from the Kite engraving in Jones (1876), and shows the a flat moulding around the lower edge that matches the one around the upper rim, without an inscription [was the font altered between those two dates? or, was the lower moulding just an additional platform used before the basin was mounted on the three stone blocks, as shown in Bond (1908)? This font is not in use for baptismal purposes [cf. Index entry for Potterne No. 2 for the 13th-14th century font now in use at the church - no description is available for the third font in this church and therefore is not listed in this Index]. Rita Wood identifies the material of the font as 'Bath stone', an oolitic type of limestone [e-mail to BSI 28 July 2021].