Hempton nr. DeddingtonWorton]

Kelly's Oxford Directory of 1911 reports: "the font was formerly in the old church Over Worton". Noted in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974): "Font. From Over Worton. Norman, incised all over with zigag patterns." The Victoria County History (Oxon, vol. 11, 1983) mentions the chapel of St. John the Evangelist at Hempton, a hamlet of Deddington, with a 12th-century font "transferred from Over Worton church". The "Deddington On Line" WEB site (www.deddington.org.uk) describes and illustrates a 12th-century baptismal font which was given to this 19th-century church by the Reverend William Wilson, Rector of Over Worton; the illustration shows a roughly cylindrical basin with a moulding at the bottom and geometric pattern ornamentation on the sides; on one of the sides there appears to be a human figure portrayed. The base consists of four (?) columns, and the whole is raised on a quadrangular lower base or plinth. The entry for Over Worton in The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850) notes: "This church has been almost entirely rebuilt in the D[ecorated] style [...] The font is a very good imitation of the E[arly] E[nglish] style" [this entry appears to indicate that the work had been recently completed [e.g.: the tower was finished in 1849] at the time of publication, therefore the old font must have been given to Hempton previously].