Silian / Sulien

The entry for this parish in Meyrick (1808) notes: "Formerly only a chapel of ease, is now a parish, and adjoins those of Lampeter and Bettws Bleddrws. [...] The font is a circular bason of stone, on the outside of which are carved four human faces, equidistant from each other." Lewis' Dictionary of 1833 notes: "the font is circular, of antique design, an ornamented with four human faces". Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as the surviving basin of an old baptismal font from this church; it is ornamented with four equidistant heads on the basin sides. Peter Lord, in Diwylliant... (1998-2003) describes this font as "also of the four-headed type". Described and illustrated in Thurlby (2006): "At Silian the twelfth century bowl is carved with four projecting heads and is on the floor of the church next to its nineteenth-century replacement". The entry for this church in COFLEIN [https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/402554/details/st-suliens-church-silian] [accessed 23 January 2020] notes: "St Sulien’s was a medieval parish church, belonging to the Deanery of Sub-Aeron. First mentioned in documents of 1281, its valuation was at that time equal to nearby St Peter's Church, Lampeter [...] The pre-1840 church is known to have consisted of nave and chancel with west bellcote, and was described as an ancient ediface in 1833. The church was rebuilt in 1838-1840. It was again rebuilt in 1872-1873, to the designs of R.J. Withers, Chester, on the foundations of its predecessor. [...] The church's original late twelfth/early thirteenth century font, with four human masks in relief, is similar to those at St Patrick's Church, Pencarreg (NPRN 418382), St Llawddog's Church, Cenarth (NPRN 309895) (taken from St Tysilio's Church, Llandisiliogogo, NPRN 400361), St Mary's Church, Llanfair Clydogau (NPRN 402887) and St Llwchaiarn's Church, Llanllwchaearn (NPRN 301818). It now lies loose at the west end of the church." The COFLEIN entry (ibid.) reports a number of inscribed stones here dating from the 5th-6th to the 9th-10th centuries.