Llanharry / Llanhari

Described in Newman (1995) as an octagonal font of the Perpendicular period/style; it is ornamented "with simple incised or chip-carved designs on the faces, one like a pair of elemental trees. Newman dates it to probably the 15th century and adds "It is something for the austerity of the medieval fonts of Glamorgan that this is one of the most richly decorated of them." (Ibid.) Newman also aatributes this font to the same craftsman who executed the font at Pyle (Ibid.) On the font at Llantrisant Thurlby (2006) writes: "the font was not replaced with the rebuilding [i.e., by J. Pritchard between 1872 and 1874]. It is octagonal and each face is decorated with a roundel with chip-carved ornament. Newman [cf. supra] related the font to those at Llanharry and Pyle and dated them to the fifteenth century [...] While the affiliations are convincing, the chip carving is more at home in the twelfth, rather than the fifteenth century. This was the view expressed by J. Romilly Allen, although the octagonal form of the font led him to attribute it to the thirteenth century [...] However, the Norman font at Mears Ashby (Northants.) provides a good analogue for the octagonal form and the decorated roundels at Llantrisant".