St. Sampson / Saint Sampson / Golant

No idividual entry found for St Sampson or Golant in the Domesday survey. Rashleigh and Reade (1885) note: "The font is of granite, and of a good octagonal pattern." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period, one of several Cornish fonts ornamented with dragons or salamanders. Cox (1912) notes simply an octagonal font made of granite. Noted and illustrated in A Snap in Time [http://www.caerkief.co.uk/Churches/Golant.html] [accessed 23 November 2009]. The octagonal basin is raised on an octagonal stem; both appear plain, except for two small mouldings [NB: were Cox & Harvey referring to a different font?]. The entry for this church in the CRSBI (2019) notes: "the church is substantially 14thc with 15thc additions. It was restored in 1871. The font is the only Romanesque feature. [...] The font sits at the W end of the nave, towards the SW corner. Bowl, circular and cup-shaped, with four rudimentary human heads carved to meet four corner shafts. The bowl is also supported by a thicker central shaft. The shafts are plain without bases, and all apparently original. The side of the bowl is divided into four sections by the corner heads, each section is richly carved. Each face has a bold moulding, as a border below the lid. Described by Sedding as the "nebule" ornament, this is mostly chiselled off on the W side and N side, and slightly damaged on the S side. Of the corner heads only the SE is undamaged; the SW head has been broken off in the past and much is missing of its lower half; and on the N side they are almost chiselled away at the top. The bowl is of Pentewan. a hard white stone with some small mica inclusions. The supporting shafts are of a similar stone of yellower tint. The base is modern, of concrete. [...] E face: "Tree of life": a symmetrical plant with six pairs of branches. -- N face: As S face: dragon at the top, tail curled under; pair of confronted cats below, with long spiral-tipped tails. -- S face: As N face: dragon at top, tail curled under, pair of confronted cats below, with long spiral-tipped tails, but also a pair of flower-heads between and a single pellet under the neck of the dragon. -- W face: As E face, but hacked away at the tip in the middle. "[NB: the pairs of 'cats' are probably lions, carved with the characteristic tails curling on the their rumps].