Udimore / Dodimere

Harrison (1920) reports traces of a late-12th century arcade in the south wall of this Early English church, but does not mention a font in it. A font in it is described in Whiteman (1994) as "a rare wooden font which stands in the porch", now replaced by a modern one inside the church. The Udimore church guide (Harvey, 1974) informs: "A fa[s]cinating church 'forgery' is represented by Udimore pudding basin font. By ancient ecclesiastical edict, fonts cannot be made of wood, so in the early 18th century, parsimonious parish officials at Udimore, carefully painted a wooden bowl with a stone covering outside and lead paint inside to give the impression they were complying with the regulations! It was restored by the Reverend R.B. Sutton (vicar 1952-69) who with a[d]vice from the V[ictoria] and A[lbert] Museum left a portion of wood exposed to show [the] forgery." The same source illustrates both the wooden font and the new replacement inside the church. [Our gratitude to Reverend Duncan Lloyd-James, rector of Udimore -Brede-with-Udimore- for all the information on this font and for the copy of the church guide].