St. Goran / Gorran / St. Gorran / Saint Goran / Saint Gorran

Noted in Lysons (1806-1833) as one of a group of Cornish fonts that includes Bodmin, “St. Austell, St. Columb-Minor, Crantock, Cuby, St. Dennis, St. Gorran, Luxulion, Newlyn, Roche, Southill, Tintagell, Veryan, and St. Wen”. Paley (1844) writes that the general shape of the font at St. Goran is that of the Norman fonts of Cornwall: a hemispherical basin is supported by a central cylindrical column and by four shafts whose capitals make the upper corners of the basin, thus giving it a square shape at the top. However, as Paley points out, "the quatrefoil, and the shield which bears the arms of Bodrigan, prevent our attributing it to so early a period [i.e., Norman]" (Paley, 1844). The fate of the late lord of the manor at Goran, Sir Henry Bodrigan, is outlined in Paley, namely that he "was attainted of high treason against Henry the Seventh [...], his whole estates were forfeited, and seized, and settled upon Sir Richard Edgcumb [...] whose posterity are still in posession of them." (ibid.) That would place the font itself in the 15th century, a date which is assigned to it also by Bond (1908), who argues that "the quatrefoils and the heraldry shew that it is fifteenth century work" . According to Paley's source, the font "formerly stood beside a pillar, on the south side of the nave, opposite the south door, but was removed about twenty years ago [i.e., ca. 1820] to its present site." Described in 'On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall' (1851): "a very good font […] : the bowl, which is covered with singular carvings, is supported upon a central shaft, and four angular ones of a smaller size." Cox (1912) notes a "circular font with unusual ornaments on bowl", of the Norman period. Noted in Pevsner (1970): "Font. Norman, on five supports, with corner faces and, as chief ornamental motifs between, the unusual motif of streaky flowing hair and rosette, tree of life, etc.", but a footnote in the same source adds: "Two points suggest that the font may not be Norman: the Bodrugan arms on the E face (which could possibly have been added later, of course) and a curious, un-Norman round-faced monster right at the base (Rev. J.H. Adams)." Illustrated in A Snap in Time [http://www.caerkief.co.uk/Churches/Gorran.html] [accessed 16 November 2009].