Rotherfield nr. Tunbridge Wells No. 2

Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907: 223) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. The details supplied by Bond (1908) refer more to the cover than to the font itself. He lists this font cover among the Jacobean, post-Reformation, lids on the evidence that it "bears the date 1533 on one of the panels of the canopy" and the entry in the church warden's account book dated for "the yer of owr lord MCCCCCXXXII [...to] MCCCCCXXXV [...] Item receyved of diverse persons to the tabernacle [i.e., cover] of the fonte iij li" and two other contributions for the same purpose (Bond, p. 291). Bond's comment on the detail of the font cover, right after that quote, "it is of Pre-Reformation date" appears to contradict his earlier statement dating the font cover to the Post-Reformation (cf. Bond, op. cit., p. 289). The font cover is also described in Whiteman (1994: 131): "An octagonal font cover, dated 1533, has the carved coat of arms of George Nevill, then the Lord of the Manor". [We are grateful to Mark Collins, of www.roughwood.net, for the photograph of the font cover]