Newick / Newik / Newyke / Niewica / Niwica

No entry for Newick found in the Domesday survey. Paley (1844) notes this as one of the few square fonts of the Decorated period. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a square baptismal font of the 14th century. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a square basin mounted on a cluster of engaged columns (one broad central pedestal and four corner colonnettes), a square lower base and a square plinth. The sides of the basin are ornamenetd with a blind arcade of trefoil arches or niches; these are described in Bond (ibid.) as Ogee niches assuming "a homely form". In Harrison (1920) as 14th-century, Decorated. The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 7, 1940) notes: "The parish church of St. Mary [...] The nave dates from about 1100, having early-14th-century insertions, but it was lengthened east in the drastic restoration of 1886–7 [...] The west tower was built in the 15th century [...] The font has a 14th-century square bowl with ogee tracery on the sides, set on a 12th-century cylindrical pedestal with plain attached shafts; the base is modern." Whiteman (1994) describes it as a composite font: "The 14th-century font, a square basin with ogee tracery, is mounted on a simple Norman base." The entry for this church in the Sussex Parish Churches web site [www.sussexparishchurches.org/content/view/253/34/] [accessed 1 November 2012] raises the possibility tha the square basin may have been the original 12th-century one, re-carved in the 14th century.