Staveley nr. Chesterfield

Cox (1875) writes: "The font […] which is Norman, might by some be attributed to a date as early as the Domesday Survey, and it would be interesting to think that the original stone was now in use; but to us it appears, from cpmaring it with other specimens, to be about a century later, i.e., of the latter half of the twelfth century. This fine specimen of an early font, unique in several of its details, was happily rescued of late from an ignominious position in the grounds of the old rectory. The font stands three feet high, and the base eighteen inches. The top part is circular, but bevilled down the lower edge, and at one of the angles thus formed is a man's head with a forked beard, wearing a crown fleury, from the centre of which rises a brush-like erection. The central support is a large round pillar, but it is further supported at each angle, by four small columns, only two-and-a half inches in diameter. The basin of the font is circular, two feet two inches in diameter, and ten inches deep." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Romanesque period. Noted in Pevsner (1978): "Font. Apparently Norman ; it may be an assembly of fragments." Pevsner's observation is probably accurate; the upper cylinder of the basin has some cuttings on the lower part that are consistent with the repairs to old basins damaged by the forceful removal of cover staples; the lower volume of the basin and underbowl, which is decorated with very flat heads or masks at 90-degree angles, could very well be Norman; the base has a broad central column with four attached colonnettes, also probably from an early date. As observed, the object does appear to have been made up of not totally matched parts. The round wooden cover is modern. A recent photograph of this font can be found in the Netherthorpe School site [www.netherthorpe.org]. [NB: Cox (1875) reports an object located at the time "in a cottage garden, within a stone's throw of the church […] a small circular stone basin, about a foot in diameter, richly carved with four cherubs' heads in high relief, and with five-leafed flowers between. It is now filled with moss, and broken from its base; and,though much knocked about, is a nice piece of carving of the Renaissance style […] We think it likely that this basin at one time served as font to the church, though a plainer marble basin was removed to make way for the original one, now so happily restored to its proper place."]