Huntingdon No. 1 / Huntandene / Huntantum

Cooke (1802) notes that an ancient steeple from an earlier church stood in one of the nearby cemeteries, but "was taken down, about five years ago, to prevent the danger of its expected fall"; of St. Mary's church it notes that the date over the north doorway indicates its origin in James I's reign [i.e., 1603-1625], and, of its font, it adds: "The font consists of an octagonal base [sic], supported by a central column, surrounded by small pillars" [NB: "base" may be typographical error for 'basin' or 'bowl']. Reported in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848: "the font is of octangular form, and supported on a column encircled by small pillars". Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Early English period, with "a plain octagonal bowl, but the pedestal has a fine cluster of circular shafts". Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins. The Parish web site [www.stmaryshuntingdon.org.uk/html/features.html] [accessed 20 April 2012] notes: "The font is of marble and like the tower door dates from the 13th century. This was originally in front of the Altar on the south aisle and was moved in the early 19th century to its present position and was restored in the last few years." [NB: the present font looks suspiciously sharp for a 13thC object, and must have been either totally re-tooled or partly re-tooled and partly replaced; the low-pyramidal cover appears modern].