Whatlington / Watlingetone

Harrison (1920) notes in his entry for this church: "The chancel arch and part of walls are early Nor[man] (c. 1080)", but does not mention a font in it. Described in Whiteman (1994): "The font, 13th-century, is a large square bowl with chamfered corners". The Sussex Parish Churches site [www.sussexparishchurches.org/content/view/296/34/] [accessed 7 February 2013] comments: "Font: C13 plain square bowl with the corners cut away, with an unusually slender octagonal stem. This was probably originally like other late C12 and C13 fonts in the area, notably that at Battle, with a bowl on a central stem and four corner shafts. The corner shafts have disappeared (as happened at Battle where they were replaced in the C19) and it is likely at Whatlington that the corners were cut away following damage to one or other of them - the others were most probably treated similarly for the sake of symmetry." A fire affected much of the church on Thursday, 15 July 2010, but several furnishings, including the font, survived and were restored. [cf. ChurchNotes]