Little Gidding

The Ecclesiologist (vol. LXXXIX, April 1852: 129) reports on a 9 February 1852 meeting of the Architectural Society of the Archdeaconry of Northampton; at this meeting the lord of the manor, "Wm. Hopkinson Esq." referred to the restoration of the church at Little Gidding and mentioned some of the fittings, including "the brass font". Bond (1908) mentions "Little Gidding, Huntingdon" and has an illustration of a late chalice font, very small bowl basin, with a long spindle-like base and ornate lower base. It was, adds Bond, donated by Nicolas Ferrar in 1626 for the little desecrated church known as the Protestant Nunnery. The Victoria County History (Huntingdon, vol. 1, 1926), on mention of a brass lectern that was near the chancel, between the pulpit on the north and a reading desk on the south, footnotes: "According to a letter dated 5 March 1742-3 among the Brett Papers there was then a brazen font stannding next to the lectern". Noted in Pevsner (1968): "Also of c. 1625 the Font, a brass baluster with a delightful brass cover surrounded by a kind of crown." Jillian Wilkinson, in the web site of the St. John's Church, Little Gidding [www.littlegiddingchurch.org.uk], annotates a recent photograph of this font: "The unique brass font bowl is thought to have been locally made (from a poor alloy) in the Ferrar's time, and has deteriorated over the centuries. It was repaired and stabilised by the Metallurgy department of English Heritage in 1994. The cover is in the form of a crown, with fleurs de lys and trefoils standing around the edge. The stem is thought to be Flemish, 17th century, and with the supporting fire dogs make up the stand for the font-bowl. The whole structure is now under glass in the neighbouring Ferrar House." Wilkinson (e-mail communication to BSI of 10 January 2007) adds that "there is one recent copy of this font, in Lambeth Palace, the London H[ead] Q[uarters] of the Archbishop of Canterbury". [We are grateful to Jillian Wilkinson, of www.littlegiddingchurch.org.uk, for the information and photograph of this font]