Takeley

Sperling (1860) identifies "three very elaborate font covers casing the whole font, and terminating in crocketed canopies, remain at Thaxtead [sic], Littlebury, and Takeley: at the latter place it has been coverted into a surplice box." Bond (1908) mentions a fine example of counterpoised Gothic cover remaining in this church, and describes the counterweight of the cover as "a simple stone" (ibid.) [No mention is made of the font itself]. The font cover is noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font-cover: octagonal, spire-shaped, with elaborate traceried sides, crocketed and finialled canopies and buttresses, late 15th or early 16th-century, much restored." Pevsner (1976), too, notes the cover as "perhaps the most sumptuous" of the county, "very tall, with a lavish display of crocketed nodding ogee arches and buttresses and flying buttresses with crocketed pinnacles, tier above tier. C15 but much restored". Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add that the 19th-century rstoration of the cover was done in 1847 by William Ollett Junior. Frost's 'Takeley: A History' (1983) dates the cover to the 16th century [source: e-adaptation in http://tlhs.org.uk/historic_buildings.htm]. The cover is about six feet in height, and is suspended on a chain-and-pulley system with a stone counterweight. The present stone font is modern [NB: the church goes back to Norman times but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]