Wraxall nr. Wells / Wraxhall

There is a 1783 ink-wash-on-paper drawing of this font by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794) in the British Library collections [Shelfmark: Additional MS 15547 - Item number: f.127]. Described and illustrated in Rutter (1829): "The font is octagonal, with trefoiled panelling, of the early part of the fifteenth century". Bloxam (1859) writes: "Near the font, […] affixed to a pier, is a small stone desk for the manual or service book, in which the office pertaining to the Sacrament of Baptism was contained. Noted in the Handbook for travellers… (1869). Listed in Cox-Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular style/period. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as a stone octagonal mounted font; the sides of the basin are ornamented with a blind arcade of sixteen trefoil arches, two per side; the chamfer of the underbowl is plain, as is the octagonal pedestal base. The font stands on a rectangular plinth. Buck (1951) notes: "the stone book-rest is attached to the pillar alongside which the font has been placed", of which Buck mentions Wraxall (Somerset), Sonning (Berkshire), Beckley (Oxfordshire) and Gillingham (Kent). The font and "the small book-rest" are noted in Pevsner (1958) This is one of the several baptismal fonts noted to have a ledge or bracket located nearby, believed to have served as a lectern for the baptism ritual book or manual [the ledge at Wraxall, and a very similar one at Yatton, take the shape of a lectern affixed to a nearby pillar and are ornamented with a human figure on the lower part (both illustrated in Bond, ibid., p. 65)]. The Parish web site www.wraxallwithfailand.org.uk/wraxall.htm] suggests a15th-century date for the font.