Petrockstow / Patrichestowe / Patrickstow / Petrocestoua / Petrochestou / Petrockstowe / Petrokestowe / Stow St. Petrock

There is an entry for Petrockstowe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SS5109/petrockstowe/] [accessed 21 March 2025]; it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as one of a group of square baptismal fonts in the county that are "for the most part supported by four pillars and a large pedestal in the centre". Both Paley (1844) and Enlart (1902) date this square mounted font to the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century. The design, like that of the Boconnoc font in Cornwall and others, is "retro", going back to the shape of the Norman fonts of the area but, as Paley (ibid.) points out, its general form "seems to have been prevalent in this county at all periods, from the Norman to the Perpendicular". The lower half of the basin has a row of blind Gothic arches with no columns, but at least one side has threfoil motifs inside the arches; the rest of the basin appears plain. There is a central cylindrical column and four corner colonnettes, all plain, without capitals or bases. The two-step plinth is square. The cover, which Paley believes to be of a later date is an ornate pyramidal structure three feet tall, its crocketed sides covered in four-leaf rosettes and having a large bird [dove?] as finial. Described in White's Directory of 1878-1879 as "a much admired Norman font". LIsted in Cox & Harvey (1907: 197) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Clarke (1922) describes it as one nine Devon 'table fonts' (Bondleigh, Hennock, Holbeton, Honiton Clyst, Mariansleigh, North Lew, Petrockstowe, Roseash and Washfield) that belong to the thirteenth century, "though the ornament on the bowls is of that date their heavy construction suggests a Norman origin, so that they have often been wrongly attributed to the twelfth century". [cf. Index entry for Clyst Honiton for a full description, measurements and illustration of this type of font]. The entry for this church in Historic England [List Entry Number: 1333084] notes: "A small church building existed here from the early C12 [...] Norman pedestal piscina and font, C16 font cover [...] a square Norman font of about 1170 with a C16 pyramidal ornately-carved and crocketed oak font cover. The font has carved arcading and flowerhead decoration on its east and west sides, and wheel panelling on the north side. It is on a C19 base of Hatherleigh stone with a central column and four corner shafts."