Buckfastleigh

No entry for Buckfasteligh found in the Domesday survey. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907: 196) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908: 41 et al.); it is an awkward-looking font, the type that would have been perfectly happy without the added shafts; Bond (ibid.) states that the font is not Anglo-Saxon as may have been suggested, and dates the ornamentation to the 12th century, while the "Corinthianesque" capitals of the shafts are 11th-century style. The roughly hemispherical basin has a large rope moulding under the rim; the sides of the basin have large palmette motifs all around and the underbowl has saw-tooth motif around. The central column of the upper base is very thick, while the shafts are very slender; the lower base is square and appears plain. Stabb (1908) writes: "The font [...] is Norman with cable moulding, and is roughly supported by the pillars which were removed from the sedilia." Described and illustrated in Clarke (1916) as one of twelve Devon fonts of about the same period [Norman/Late Norman] decorated with a prominent band of honeysuckle or palmetto motif all around the basin [the twelve are: Ashprington, Blackauton, Buckfastleigh, Denbury, Cornworthy, Dartmouth St. Petrock's, Paignton St Andrew's, Plymstock, South Brent, Thurlestone, Ugborough and Wolbororugh, all in Devon]. Clarke (ibid.) identifies this font as "one of the earliest of the group, and further noteworthy because in addition to the central shaft it is supported by three Romanesque pillars of older type than the font itself. Whence these pillars came it is impossible to say; they might have formed of a Norman sedilia or wall arcade [...] The bowl has three features which mark the perfect form of honeysuckle font: namely, a row of saw-tooth, a cable below the round moulding of the rim, and a broad band of honeysuckle between. It is of red sandstone but has been whitewashed" Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Norman, circular, similar to Paignton." The entry for Buckfastleigh in Historic England [Listing NGR: SX7424166572] notes: "C13 tower; chancel and transepts possibly also C13 in origin; C15 aisles and chancel chapels. Thorough restoration of 1844-45 [...] fine Norman font re-sited in the S transept with a carved freestone bowl with some remains of colouring on its original cylindrical stem with 4 added shafts. Probably late C18 domed font cover."