Rotherfield nr. Tunbridge Wells No. 1

Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "the ancient font is elaborately carved", but there is no mention of any font in Hussey (1852), just a few years later. Bond (1908) reports that "the old font was discovered in 1892 lying in a field where it was used as a cattle trough; a church warden was tenant of this field in 1816; no doubt it was he who appropriated it; it has been restored to the church once more". The view of the old font is obstructed in Bond's illustration by the new one, but one manages a peek at the old battered polygonal structure obviously damaged beyond repair, but still occupying a place inside the church. Noted in Mark Collins [www.roughwood.net] as a late-Norman font recovered from a farm at the end of the 19th century, where it had been used as a cattle tough; Collins informs that Samuel Wickens, the tenant farmer in 1816, had been a churchwarden from 1814-1818. Harrison (1920) writes: "The font has a cover with arms of the Nevill family, dated 1533, of French design." The full story of the font is told by Pullein (1928), who provides some measurements for the old basin. Pullein (ibid) provides a photograph of the font and cover, and gives information on the latter, which had on one of its panels the date 1533 and the payement of 3 pounds, 7s and 2 d. is recorded for the "tabernakyll" cover in the parish records of 1832-1835; the cover is octagonal, of the rim-buffet type,.with carved side panels and a top tapering off to a ball or knob finial; the cover appears installed on the modern font, with the old basin on the ground next to it; there are coats of arms on the panels of the sides, including those of George Nevill, lord of Rotherfield manor, plus those of the Warrennes family, of the Clares, and the Despensers. Pullein (ibid.) dismisses the idea that the panels of the font [cover?] had been recycled from an old pulpit.