Hedon No. 1

No entry found for Hedon in the Domesday survey. Noted in Glynne's October 1841 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007): "The font has an octagonal bowl of Perpendicular character, each face having an ogee crocketed canopy, with pinnacles between them, set upon figures of angels. The spandrils are pannelled with quatrefoiled circles, shields, animal figures, and the Tudor flower. The shaft is octagonal, and on its west side is a kneeling step". Poole (1842) tells the story of the restoration of this font "to its pristine elegance [...] by a person who went to see the nble church [...] and having perceived in the font traces of greater beauty than appeared to the common eye, asked and obtained permission to clean it", and the good deed was "seconded by the addition of a canopy, sufficiently hansome not to disgrace its destination". Poole (ibid.), however, describes his horror when he visited this church: "The bottom of the canopy is a flat surface, covering the basin of the font, and into the centre of this is inserted a little basin, which is evidently intended to prevent the necessity of using the font itself, so that its use is actually superseded, not gained, by the late addition; and when the lid of this basin was taken off, it was discovered full of nutshells!". Described and illustrated in Paley (1844): round-top basin has its side divided into eight compartments, each ornamented with a cinquefoil arch "under rich crocketed ogee canopies; the spandrels are filled with foliage and ornaments". There are winged angel busts at the bottom end of the basin side divisions. The upper part of the stem of the base, right under the underbowl, has capital-like decoration, which makes Paley suspect that it "probably had a small shaft on each face" (ibid.), and the lower part is a plain octagonal shaft. The single-step plinth is round. Listed in Brandon (1849) as a font of the Decorated period, with an octagonal stem ornamented with "panels divided by small pinnacles". Bulmer's Directory of 1892 notes: "The font is octagonal, with quatrefoil and elegant tracery." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the 14th century "of particular merit". Hobson (1924) describes it as "handsome font Perp[endicular]". Bond (1908) informs of remaining records detailing "two entries for 1372: 'Item, pro factura unius cooperture pro funte in ecclesia, ijs', and 'pro clavis pro eadem cooperture, ijd.'" These two entries of expenses make reference to a font cover that no longer exists; the present font cover is a round, flat and plain piece of undecorated wood. Noted in Betjeman (1958) as a 14th-century font comparable to the one at Holy Trinity's, Hull. In Jenkins (2000): "In the south aisle is a Gothic gem, a Decorated font covered in ogees and blind tracery, original and perfect." There is at least one animal head, resembling a lion, among the other tracery motifs, and one IHS emblem as well.