Felpham / Falcheham

Noted in Hussey (1852): "The font is of Weald marble, large, square, with arches panelled in the sides, and a stem, but no shafts." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Noted in Harrison (1920) as a font of the late-12th century. Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) with a group of Norman-period fonts on which "the arcading is rather rudely represented by a succession of shallow sunk panels with semicircular heads [...] the only adornment" of the basin. Described and illustrated in Whiteman (1994): "The large Norman font is square with shallow arcading". Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008), where the material is identified as "Sussex marble", and dated probably 12th-century, contemporary with the arcades of the nave. The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 5, pt. 1, 1997) describes the material as "Sussex marble" and gives the date as "late 12th-century"; it adds that "its original base lies in the churchyard opposite the south door". The font consists now [2010] of a square basin decorated with a shallow-carved arcade around the sides, mounted on a broad central pillar and four corner colonnettes [NB: the outer corner colonnettes are modern, since none were present ca. 1852, when Hussey visited, and the VCH reports the old base in the churchyard ca. 1997], all raised on a plain square plinth; the centre shaft and moulded lower base appear to be modern as well; the modern corner colonnettes have rounded bases. A photograph of this font by Ms. Young, Victoria Margaret Sproul (op. 1850-1852) is listed with ref. no. PD 2012 (2) in the West Sussex Record Office, in Chichester, UK. There is an illustration of the Felpham font in the Victoria County History (ibid., opp. p. 235), but a more recent one [cf. Images area] shows a complete modern base.