Abbotsham

Described in Cox & Harvey (1907): "The font at Abbotsham church is chalice-shaped, but there is the cable moulding round the top of the bowl, as well as round the top and bottom of the base shaft; it is of late Norman date". Described and illustrated in Clarke (1916) as one of a group of fonts [cf. Pevsner's note below for the others] of the same style in the area and she dates the group to the last quarter of the twelfth century: "Abbotsham font [...] looks as though a coating of paint or whitewash had been scraped off; the surface has naturally suffered in the process, and has no appearance of antiquity. But there are still traces of axe-dressing; coarse inside the bowl, finer in other parts. The outline of the bowl is extremely graceful and pleasing; it is of gourd shape; rather narrower at the rim than it is a few inches below." Described in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Circular, Norman, fluted bowl, cable-moulding round waist (cf. Beaford, Bradworthy, Clayhanger, and Parkham nearby)".