Withersdale Street

No entry found for Withersdale Street in the Domesday survey. Parker (1855) notes: "Font, N[orman], consisting of square bowl and pedestal". Listed in Cautley (1982) as a baptismal font of the 12th century. Described in Jenkins (1999): "The font is exceptional, dating from the 12th century and with complex carving on each of its four sides. Since one has a pointed arch, it may have been recut c.1300". Described and illustrated in Knott (2007): "superb font carved with a tree of life and a grinning face. It may be Norman, it may be older. It is set upon a modern brick base". Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015), with detailed description of each side, and the following comment: "There is no close local parallel for the font decoration. The cut-down font at St Mary's, Naughton has intersecting arches, and the more elaborate font at SS Mary and Lawrence, Great Bricett has varied arcaded designs on its four faces, including trefoil and intersecting arches, but these two are some 30 miles away to the SW. The font at All Saints, Great Thurlow has arcaded faces and hollowed out or shafted angles, but is not really similar and is at the far SW of the county. Dating is problematic. The finely carved and accurately laid out trefoil-headed pointed arches of the S face suggest a date after 1200, whereas there is nothing on the other faces that could not have been carved in the 1140s or '50s. It is possible that the font was remodelledc.1200 or later (Pevsner suggests c.1300), but if so it is surprising that the opportunity was not taken to complete the carving of the N face at the same time." The east side of the basin has a Tree of Life, a six-petal floral motif inscribed in a circle, below which another circle that may represent a stylised face, and, to the right, a vertical zigzag; the south side has a pair of trefoil arches or windows [cf. supra]; [other sides not visible in the source]; the vertical corners of the basin have been cut and the groove has some sort of motif in it.