Thorpe nr. Hoganston

Cox (1875-1877) writes: "the font at the west end. Its total height is two feet three inches; the height of the upper portion being seventeen inches, its diameter twenty-four, and the depth of the bowl eight. The font itself is circular in shape, and tapers slightly towards the base. It is incised round the centre with two parallel lines. The base is evidently modern. We sought out and found 'the oldest inhabitant', from whom to make inquires respecting this font. This was his story:-- He could remember the font being in the church some fifty or sixty years ago, for he used to sit close to it when a boy. It was then covered with rude figures of queer-shaped animals with long tails and horns, as well as a good deal of foliage. In short, he described to us a font exactly similar to the remarkable one now standing in the adjacent parish church of Tissington. We thought that our informant might be confusing it in his mind with that one; but he assured us that he had never been in Tissington church in his life, or ever heard talk of the font. At the time, he added, when the church was re-pewed, this old font was removed by one of the churchwardens, near whose house it stood for many years, and served as a drinking trough for the cattle. The action of the frost and weather peeled off the surface of the stone that bore the quaint figures, so that they had almost disappeared when it was pointed ouit to the late Rector. The Rector had it scraped and cleansed, and then restored to its original position. The two parallel lines were at that time incised, according to or informant." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as one of "three Derbyshire tub fonts [that] may safely be assigned to the 11th cent." and adds that, in this font, "the sculpture has all peeled off through long exposure in the churchyard". On-site notes: the local church guide written in 1965 by the then Rector of the Parish, the Rev. Dereck H. Buckley, refers to "Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire", in which J. C. Cox refers to a conversation he had with "the oldest inhabitant" of the village"; this person, writes Cox [cited in the church guide], "could remember sitting near the font when he was a boy, and he could well remember seeing it covered with carvings of queer-shaped animals with long tails and horns". "This, incidentally," -continues the guide- "is a description remarkably like the font still to be seen at Tessington [i.e., Tissington], bearing its original carvings" [cf. Index entry for Tissington]. The same guide adds that the font was removed to the exterior by one of the churchwardens when the church was re-pewed ca. 1810, "and was for many years left in the open air, where the weather destroyed the greater part of the carvings. It was discovered many years later, by the then Rector, Joseph Kewley, who, in an excess of Victorian zeal, had it cleaned up and resurfaced, thus efficiently destroying the last remaining traces of the original carving". The guide quotes the Baptismal Register of the Parish: "The ancient font [...] restored to its proper place on the 8th November, 1865". [NB: copy of the 1965 guide in the BSI archive]. Pevsner (1978) notes simply: "Font. Plain Norman." Bunting (2001) writes that the sculptured "detail was lost to frost and weather during the font's long use as a cattle trough" [source: transcription in www.genuki.org.uk].