North Petherwin / North Petherwyn / Paderwynn Gledh

Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928: 30) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins. The entry for North Petherwin Church in the Cornwall Historic Churches Trust [https://www.chct.info/histories/north-petherwin-st-paternus/] [accessed 27 February 2018] notes: "Font with Norman base and crude octagonal bowl replacement. Building accounts record the removal of the original Polyphant font from the church in 1495-6. It was probably like Laneast’s font originally – Altarnun-type. Was the original font accidentally broken during building work?" The entry for this church in the British Listed Buildings site [Listing NGR: SX2819689626] reports: "Norman font with octagonal granite bowl, greenstone octagonal shaft and square base." The present font consists of an octagonal basin of orange-coloured coarse-grain granite with plain vertical sides and a chamferred underbowl, also plain; the base is a different stone [grey limestone?] and of two parts: a plain octagonal stem, and a square lower base; it is not clear whether the lower base was octagonal at the top or not, as it may have been re-cut to match the stem; the four corbers of the lower base are decorated with large motifs that appear to be foliage. At least one metal staple in the upper rim of the basin; the flat and plain wooden cover is modern, makeshift; but there is another more elaborate font cover [https://www.360cities.net/image/north-petherwin-church-the-nave-cornwall] [accessed 27 February 2018], of metal, and it is also modern.