Ilfracombe / Alfreinscoma

Oliver (1840-1842) writes: "The Font is ancient, and deserves to be engraved" [cf. Rev. Nesbitt's observation below]. Described in Bond (1908) as a Norman baptismal font with a basin in the shape of a scalloped capital. Stabb (1908) writes: "The font is one of the few remaining relics of the old Norman building. When the church was restored in 1861, the font having been injured by frequent removals to different positions, was cut down to its present size, and the bowl was filled in, leaving only a shallow round basin. The carving was re-cut from the old design." In Hussell (1910) as Norman. Clarke (1912) writes: "Although all of this font that is now visible is modern work I feel it must not be omitted, for under the present guise the stone is still the kernel, if it may so be called, of the original Norman font. The Rev. Nesbitt in a history of the church, observes: 'The font is a relic of the old Norman building, ruthlessly scraped in 1861. It was previously much larger, but having been injured by its removal to different positions, it was cut down to its present size, and one of its most characteristic features was utterly destroyed, for the bowl was filled up with stone, leaving only a shallow basin. The present pattern was recut from the old design'". Clarke goes on in an effort to identify what possible parts of the old design are represented in the 19th-century work which remains. Clarke concludes: "No doubt it was with the best intentions that over-elaboration was bestowed on the ornament of this bowl, which is of Bath stone, and easy to work, but it is to be deplored none the less." Noted in Pevsner (1952) as Norman. Peter Lord, in Diwilliant... (1998-2003, vol. 3: 80 fn71) mentions a workshop at Ilfracombe [probably after Robert Boak?] responsible for this font; he adds that the font was "apparently recut in the nineteemth century". Hutchinson reports also of a visit to this church on 27 July 1879, and comments on "a vessel there used as a font, of dark sandstone apparently, with an interior diameter perhaps about nine inches (I speak from memory only) which stands on a modern pedestal". Hutchinson revisited this church on 6 August 1880 and made a "lithographic sketch of the old font [...] for the current volume of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association [...] to illustrate a paper by Miss Price" [NB: Butler, the editor of Hutchinson's diaries, notes that the sketch appeared on the said journal, vol. XII, 1880, opposite p. 664 -- this is the "vessel" being used as font; it is a bowl of sorts, quatrefoil on the outside, with a round inner well; the reduced measurements would suggest a mortar or grain measure, but these baptismal use of odd ancient objects is not unsusual, as Bond noted]. A sketch by Buckler in the British Library done 21 June 1821 identifies it as the old font before it was re-cut: "This font from Holy Trinity Church dates back to at least 1321. It was recut in 1861, forty years after Buckler made this drawing".