Swinford

Carte (1792) notes that, against his expectations in a place that had belonged to the Knights Hospitallers, he did not observe any "extraordinary ornaments, either of device or sculpture" on the baptismal font there. The font is noted and illustrated in Upcott (1818). Illustrated in Bond (1908) as a baptismal font with a columnar base; the number of outer columns, three, is rather an exception for this type of font. Noted in Pevsner (1984): "Font. Circular, Norman, with short blank arcading. Some supports with their fat fluted baluster shapes may be of the C17." The baptismal font appears to be 12th or 13th century, the earlier date based on the basin, the later in consideration of the odd base. The basin is cylindrical ; the upper half is ornamented with a blind arcade of round arches; the lower half is plain although an ondulation around the side appears like an attempt at a moulding [cf. Pevsner remark/suggestion above]. The oddity of the base consists of the number of legs, their arrangement and their shape; there is a central shaft with twisted moulding motif that has neither capital nor base; the three outer columns show an attempt at the three columnar elements (capital, pedestal and base) but, with the columns being so thick and short and with an attempt at retaining the twisted moulding motif on these as well, the result is less than successful giving the font a rather grotesque shape. The whole has been raised on a circular pedestal.