Lackford / Lachford

Noted and illustrated in Parker (1855): "The font is very beautiful, of Decorated date, c. Edward I [i.e., 1272-1307]; it has erroneously been described as E[arly] E[nglish] period [NB: Parker (ibid.) remarks that the font "is engraved in Rickman's Architecture and Gage's History of Suffolk" and reproduces an engraving captioned "Early English font". The illustration in Parker is signed by the well-known Orlando Jewitt.]. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as an octagonal font labelled "Early English"; Cox & Harvey put it without a doubt in the reign of Edward I, 1272-1307. Noted in James (1930): "late thirteenth-century font of very fine design carved with foliage." [NB: James (ibid.) uses 'Lackford' in the text but his index entry under 'Fonts' has 'Lachford']. The font has deeply-carved foliage panels on the vertical sides; the upper level of the underbowl chamfer appears decorated with pairs of leaf and floral motifs, whereas the lower is decorated with graded mouldings; short octagonal stem; moulded lower base at the top, the rest square and plain. Cautley (1982) notes the recent [at the time of Cautley's first edition, most likely, ca. 1938] removal of the plaster that covered it.