Wilmslow

Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907: 188, 189) as a baptismal font of the 14th century, the Decorated period; the font "has recently been banished to the churchyard to make room for a modern sucessor". Elsewhere in this source (ibid.: 173-174) C&H provide an interesting set of transactions in the mid-17th century for items related to the font itself and to other baptismal implements. This font is listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928: 30) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts of the 14th or 15th century that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins; the font was reported in the churchyard ca. 1928 (ibid.) Richards (1973) quotes from a paper read at the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire by Robert Langton in 1886; in it Langton narrates some of the ill-effects of the 1863 restoration, among which, "the ancient font was shifted into the churchyard [...], and replaced by a very poor new one". Richards (ibid.) provides a photograph of the disused font: the octagonal basin has plain vertical sides with a wide scotia or indent around the lower side; the base appears to consists of three parts: a round upper block, a middle section of two semi-circular blocks, and a lower section that is round at the top but octagonal thoughout.