Rattery / Rattary

Listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as a baptismal font "among many of circular form and an early age, enriched with various carved mouldings, wreaths, scrolls, or foliage". The 7th ed. of Lewis' Topographical Dicitionary of England [www.british-history.ac.uk/report.esp?compid=51231] [accessed 4 December 2006] notes a Norman font in this church. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907: 196) as having a baptismal font of the Norman period. Noted in Stabb (1908) as Norman. Described and illustrated in Clarke (1916): "The ornamentation of this font is exactly like Southpool [cf. Index entry for South Pool], so the same description will apply to it, but unfortunately it has suffered the loss of its round rim moulding which has been pared away. No dount it was in a bad condition, as the rim often is in the case of a soft stone, but the appearance of the font is affected very injuriously. The bowl and shaft are of red sandstone; the shaft is in two pieces; it has a moulding at both top and bottom. The plinth is an inverted cushion as at Southpool; the material is a grey stone." The font at Dittisham is also of similar decoration as those at South Pool and Rattery. Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Norman, circualr, with a curious frieze of incised semicircles."