Ratby / Rotebie

There is an entry for Ratby [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SK5105/ratby/] [accessed 27 July 2019]; it mentions a priest but not a church in it, though there must have been one there. A font at Ratby is noted and illustrated in Upcott (1818). Paley (1844) describes it as "a very singular font" and thinks its execution "coarse and rude". It has an octagonal shape at the upper rim, a shape created by the pinnacles which divide the basin sides into four and the finials of the basin arcade which add the other four angles to the upper rim of the basin, while the actual shape of the basin under all that ornamentation is actually hemispheric. The base is made up of a central octagonal pillar and four irregular corner shafts, all raised on an octagonal plinth. There is a 1890 pencil drawing by W.H. Cowlishaw in the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E, Victoria & Albert [ref.: D.453-1908] that includes the font here. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Decorated period. Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period ornamented with an overhanging arcade of foliage arches. Noted in Pevsner (1984): "Font. Probably mid-C14. Circular, with four big nodding crocketed ogee arches rising up the bowl." The Bradgate Team Ministry site [www.bradgate.leicester.anglican.org] [accessed 4 December 2006] informs: The font originally stood in Groby Old Hall, family home of the Greys. One of Sir Edward Grey's sons was baptised in it in 1440. There was no church in Groby at the time, and Sir Edward did not care to bring his son to Ratby Church because the road was 'so foul'. The font was later moved to Ratby." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SK5131105963] notes: "Parish Church. C13, C14, C15, restoration of 1881 [...] C14 octagonal font with crocketed nodding ogee panels to the sides, pinnacles and octagonal shafted base now with replaced supports."