Barton le Clay / Barthon / Barton-in-le-Clay / Barton-le-Clay / Barton-le-Cley / Bertona / Bertuna

Lysons (1806-1833) notes a group of fonts in this county, made mostly of Totternhoe stone, among which the mention "Barton with quatrefoils and roses". The reference probably refers to the re-carved font at Barton-le-Clay. The Victoria County History (Beford, vol. 2, 1908) notes: "Barton church is not mentioned in Domesday, and the first reference to it occurs in 1178, when Pope Alexander III confirmed the manor with the church to the abbey of Ramsey. [...] Previous to the thirteenth century the church consisted of an aisleless nave and a small chancel [...] The font at the west end of the north aisle appears to be a late twelfth-century circular font cut back in the fifteenth century, and ornamented with quatrefoil panels." [NB: the VCH continues directly afterwards: "The west face also bears an inscription noting repairs in 1813", but it is not clear whether this refers to a side of the basin or not]. Noted in Pevsner (1960) as a baptismal font originally of Norman but later recarved in the Perpendicular style. The entry in the CRSBI (2008) suggests that "only the rope-moulded rim (and probably the fluted band below) survives of the original circular font." The basin is round at the upper rim and decorated there with a rope moulding that appears quite irregular, parts of it looking as if it had been re-tooled as well; below is a band of very short fluted motif (gadroon); from here down the shape has been re-carved as an octagon with tapering sides; at the upper end of each panel is a four-petal Tudor flower; below these the panel has square frames containing quatrefoils windows with a rosette at the centre of each; the chamfered underbowl is adorned with a flower at each angle. Plain polygonal stem. Ken Goodearl (2007) includes this re-cut font in his page of Aylesbury fonts [www.petergoodearl.co.uk/ken/aylesburyfonts/index.htm] [accessed 11 May 2012] indicating that the original design of this font may have been similar to -or one of- the fonts of that group [cf. Index entries for Aylesbury, Bledlow, Great and Little Missenden, etc.]