Bucknell / Bokenhull / Buchehale / Buchehalle / Bucknell nr. Knighton / Bucknill

Illustrated with an engraving from a drawing by Rev. J. Brooke, in Eyton (1859- ) and in Anderson (1864). Anderson (ibid) notes two entries in Domesday Book with different spellings: Buchehale and Buchehalle. Described in Romilly Allen (1888) as being ornamented with "a band of key pattern running around the bowl." Timmins (1899) writes: "There is a curious old font in Bucknall [sic] church with a sort of interlacing pattern carved around its bowl, the date whereof is uncertain." Bond (1908) quotes Romilly Allen's conclusion about a group of fonts that "appear to be the oldest which are at present known, and may be attributed eiher to the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century"; the font at Bucknell, "on account of the character of the ornamental features." (Romilly Allen (1888)). Noted in Newman & Pevsner (2006): "Font. The bowl is remarkable, probably Early Norman if not Late Saxon piece. Tub-shaped, with very flat carving of strangely irregular interlace. One crude head to the E[ast]." Noted in the Parish web site [http://www.bucknellandbedstone.org/church.html] [accessed 14 January 2009]: "The Font in the Church is rudely carved on the round basin with interlacing cords and a face of a lion, a medieval symbol of resurrection and therefore very appropriate for a font. The face is thought by some to be Norman work but the interlacing earlier and Saxon. The base is modern and of Transitional form". Only the basin is original, the plinth and base probably 19th-century. At Anderson's time [cf. supra] the font consisted of the basin and a crude circular base with plain tapering sides; at the time, the font had a cover of the type that had a flat and round platform with four vertical ribs around a centre pivot.