March / Merche

Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Noted in Pevsner (1970): "Font. Originally square, decorated with circles, etc., C12, recut later." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2016): "an octagonal bowl with chamfered lower rim, cut down from a square one, mounted on a late medieval octagonal stem and base, standing on a broad octagonal modern plinth." The CRSBI gives details of the modifications and repairs made to the original font and notes that "Originally, therefore, each face of the bowl was carved with three quatrefoil designs." [NB: the official web page of the Parish of St. Mary, state that the current font is the original one, having been recarved: "The oldest item in the church is the font, which is believed to be from the Norman era, and survives despite being mutilated (now hexagonal it was originally square) [...] (Taken from The Story of a Famous Fen Church by Trevor A. Bevis)". [NB: the font is actually octagonal now]. [NB: it should be pointed out that the sides of the font that retain the original motifs do not show them 'carved', but rather 'incised', as if the stone-carver had done the preparatory work but had not had a chance to carry it through before the actual hacking off the angles decision was made. The shape of the incisions does not correspond to those that would have been on a quadrangular font, even if the sides had been tapering off. Was the incision done after the chamfering? If not, what was the original shape of the basin?]