Sampford Peverell / Sampford Peverel

Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907: 196) as having a baptismal font of the Norman period. Stabb (1908) writes: "The Norman font has been restored; it has a band of carving round the rim, another round the base of the bowl, and cable moulding round the base of the shaft." Described and illustrated in Clarke (1918): "The circular bowl is Norman, of late twelfth-century date; below the rim, which has been pared smooth, there is a band 3 1/2 inches wide, which originally displayed the Norman star ornament, like Dean Prior [cf. Index entry], but the untempered zeal of the restorer has planed down the arris edges, entirely destroying the character. The bowl seems to have been badly broken, and no doubt the sharp edge of the ornament had got chipped, and it was mutilated in the attempt to make it trim and neat. At the foot of the bowl is another band of ornament 3 1/2 inches wide. Two reversed chevrons enclosing a round pellet alternate with a single Norman star. The stars have been levelled in the same way as on the upper band, but the chevrons and pellets have not suffered so much, so the effect of this band is not quite so distressing. The material of the font is a coarse freestone; no doubt from the neighbourhood. The shaft and base are modern; the shaft is encircled by a cable twist 3 inches wide; the base slopes, and is finished by an undeterminate moulding. It stands on an octagonal plinth." Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Norman, circular, simple bands of decoration at top and bottom of bowl and bottom of pillar" [NB: Pevsner gives the dedication of the church as St. Mary]