Staple / Staple-next-Wingham

Noted in Hasted (1800): "The font is antient, of stone, an octagon, with emblematical carved figures." Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports "a very old font" in this church. Described in Glynne (1877): "The font is perhaps the most conspicuous feature in this church, the bowl octagonal of large size, enriched with figures of angels bearing shields containing the cross and emblems of the Passion, the insignia of four Evangelists with inscribed scrolls, also a representation of the Trinity, the Three Divine Persons being all signified. The lower part of the bowl has monsters with extended wings and a flowered hand; the shaft is surrounded by grotesque beasts, both large and small, and elevated on two high octagonal steps. The style is probably Perpendicular." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as "being a curious example of font of East Anglian design, and probably workmanship also, imported apparently into a distant part of the country". The octagonal mounted font has the symbols of the four Evangelists and shields with the emblems of the Passion on alternate panels of its sides; like some other fonts of this type, it has cherubs with extended wings on the corners of the underbowl, and wild men, "woodwooses", and lions sejant alternating on the sides of the pedestal base. Bond (1908) argues against the likelyhood of these fonts having been transported over any such distance and, instead, offers that "we must therefore explain the general similarity of the fonts of this group as simply due to copyism". [NB: although Bond may be correct about the case of this particular font, the supporting argument is flawed; baptismal fonts had been transported over greater distances already in the 12th and 13th centuries, as was the case of the Gotland and Tournai fonts]. Noted in Newman (1976): "Font. Perp[endicular]. Unusually richly, but not well, carved. On the bowl the symbols of the Evangelists alternate with demi-angels, a pilgrim, and the Trinity. Stem buttressed by lions and wild men."