Beeley No. 1

Cox (1875-1877) refers to Lysons 'MS Collections' [ca. 1816?] as noting a "large and round font", and to Rawlins' [the Revd. R.R. Rawlins?] report of his visit and a "plain and circular" font that was inside the church at the time of his visit, "but [...] was shortly afterwards cast out, and is described by Mr. T. N. Ince, in 1858, as 'now used as a rain stoup in the churchyard' It is without doubt a plain specimen of Norman work" {Cox (ibid.) informs that a drawing of the font "is given by Mr. Ince in the volume of the Anastatic Drawing Societyfor 1858, plate xxii." Included in Bond (1908) among a group of circular tub fonts probably dated to the pre-Conquest period; the font from Beeley, he adds, "now apparently destroyed". Bunting (2001) writes that the Norman font at Beeley's "was left unrecognisable by a 'barbaric' Victorian reshaping". [cf. Index entry for Beeley No. 2 for a baptismal font of the Early English period listed in this same locality]