Capel nr. Dorking

No entry found for this Capel in the Domesday survey. In his description of the church at Capel, Brayley (1850) notes: "there is an old gallery at the west end under which stands the font a basin of Purbeck marble on a stuccoed pedestal". Bond (1908) notes and illustrates a fragment of a baptismal font "where the bowl and shafts of a thirteenth century base have perished, and the base is fastened to the church wall." Bond's illustration shows a square block with a circle with a large drain hole in the centre (where the central colum would have rested) and four smaller circular shapes at the angles (where the individual colonnettes of the base would have fit). The Victoria County History (Surrey, vol. 3, 1911) notes: "Until its enlargement in 1865 the church presented a very good example of the hamlet-chapel of the late 12th or early 13th century. [...] Of the original font, the Sussex marble base alone remains, being built in against the nave wall, west of the south porch. It shows the common arrangement of four angle shafts and a central drum, through which the drain was pierced, the latter making a large hole in the base. Doubtless the bowl was of square form, with perhaps a shallow arcade cut round the sides, according to the common type, of which so many examples remain in the home counties. (fn. 30) The modern font is made of serpentine, with some little carving and gilding." The VCH entry (ibid.) adds a footnote on fonts similar to the original one here: "As at Beddington, Great Bookham, West Clandon, Frensham, Merstham, Mickleham, Seale, and Worplesdon in Surrey; and many others in Kent, Sussex, Middlesex, &c." [NB: we have no information on the present whereabouts of the basin reported in this church in Brayley, and we have no recent confirmation of the presence of the old base built into the wall]. The British Listed Buildings database entry for this church [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-290219-church-of-st-john-the-baptist-capel] [accessed 6 April 2012] describes the modern font here: "Fine font of black marble. Octagonal, on thick, round stem with gilt carving. Crimped decoration to font cover, crucifix decoration on alternate faces."