Aldingbourne / Aldingborne / Aldingburne / Aldingeborne / Ealdingburnan

There is an entry for Aldingbourne [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SU9205/aldingbourne/] [accessed 10 February 2023]; it reports a church and churchlands in it. Noted in Hussey (1852): "The font is square, of black marble, on five pillars". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Norman period. Tyrrell-Green (1928) describes it as a good specimen from a group of fonts "characteristic of the Norman period in architecture", "consisting of a rectangular bowl upon a large central shaft, with four slender supporting shafts at the angles"; ornamented with a blind arcade on the sides. In Harrison (1920). In the Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 4, 1953) with date "of the 12th century". Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008): "The font has a square, tapering bowl of Sussex marble, carved with a six-bay round-headed arcade on three sides, and with two rows of incised semi-circles on the fourth (S). The bowl is lead lined. Damage on the rim indicates where lock staples have been removed. The bowl sands on five columns and a square plinth which is shaped to form spherical bases for the columns [...] larger modern plinth." The CRSBI (ibid.) further notes a second 'font': "Mortar located on the N side of the nave, opposite S doorway. Typically, this mortar has eared corners, giving the effect of a bowl cradled in a square. It stands on a truncated cone." The CRSBI (ibid.) also documents fragments of a piscina or holy-water stoup: "located ex-situ at the E end of the S aisle. This piscina or holy water stoup is carved with three flattened rolls above scallops with hollowed shields and cones which curve underneath the basin. Although damaged, the square basin and angled drain hole are intact, together with the tail of the block, which would have been embedded in a wall. One face has been repaired." [NB: the West Gallery Churches website notes two fonts in this church, but describes only one: "the oldest is late Norman, being circular in shape and resting on a large central pillar", the other probably modern -- source: www.westgallerychurches.com/Sussex/Aldingbourne/Aldingbourne.html] accessed 18 September 2012]. Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble, the basin "with three panels on three faces and three half circles on the fourth one; two of the subsidiary shafts are modern" [source given: VCH, 4, 1953].