Waberthwaite

Edmund Bogg's 'A Thousand Miles of Wandering...' (1898) narrates that "during the restoration of the church, several fragments of an earlier structure, probably Saxon, were found [...] all of which suggests tenth century date. The FONT is of very primitive workmanship". [source of Blogg's transcribed text: http://freespace.virgin.net/past.presented/bogg.htm] [NB: Blogg's entry not found in BL or NUC pre-56]. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Cox (1913) notes: "The font is a substantial rectangular block with chamfered angles, no stem; probably Norm[an]." Noted in Pevsner (1967): "The font is mysterious, a square black block with broaches in the corners." The Visit Cumbria web site [www.visitcumbria.com] notes: "The font is probably Norman, and is a solid block of sandstone, quite massive, and may have been made from the base of a Roman pillar." The basin is monolithic but the broader base is made of multiple stones cemented together. The basin is almost octagonal, being broadly chamfered at the corners, but the lower end retains its quadrangular shape with spurs at the angles. [NB: without measurements at hand it is difficult to ascertain whether the font is square or rectangular]