Parwich / Porwich

Cox (1875-1877) notes: "The font, too, is somewhat remarkable, being a Norman one of a very unusual shape. The stone itself is two feet six inches in depth, and two feet three inches in diameter across the top, where it is quite circular; but, after some twelve inches of this dimension, it tapers down and it is divided into sixteen sides or surfaces. The stone is not pierced through the centre of the base according to the usual practice, but a spout comes out at the side, just where it begins to taper. On the font is the date 1662, which was probably carved on it to commemorate its restoration to the church, from which it has doubtless been ejected during the Commonwealth." Cox & Harvey (1907) write that, during the Restoration period, "in a few instances the date 1660 or 1662, accompanied churchwarden initials, are to be found on far older fonts, signalizing the date when they were brought back into the church after Puritan ejection. This is the case with the Norman font at Parwich, Derbs." Described in Bond (1908) as a baptismal font of the Norman period that "when restored to the church [...] had the date cut on it. That is how Pre-Reformation fonts sometimes come to bear a Post-Reformation date, especially 1660, 1661 or 1662; which , e.g., in the Norman font at Parwich, Derbyshire, and the fifteenth century font of Church Langton, Leicester, marks the date when it was replaced in the church after Puritan ejection". [NB: the entry in Bond's index locorum appears erroneously as "Porwich"; the correct name is "Parwich"]. [NB: the Newsletter no. 6 (Sept. 2001) of the Parwich & District Local History Society includes "A guide prepared by Brian Foden"; the guide includes an arch and the font as features from the Norman period, the font itself described as: "Norman work and of an unusual shape. It is round at the top, but a few inches below tapers down to sixteen sides, and stands on a circular shaft. It is inscribed with the date 1662, probably the date it was reinstalled to the church after Cromwell's commonwealth".]. It is an odd font and, if Norman, certainly re-cut and re-tooled. The font is now [2004] topped with a rather striking wooden cover painted in gold and crimson; it is octagonal with decorated vertical sides on the lower half, pyramidal on the upper half and decorated with single Ogee arches.