Coombe Keynes

Baptismal font believed to be of the 13th century with a "travelling" history. When the Coombe Keynes was made redundant in the early 1970s and the font was moved to nearby Wool in 1979, where it continued to be used for its liturgical function. In the early 1990s Wool resumed the use of its own old font and made the "inherited" font from Coombe Keynes surplus at Wool. Within a few months the old 13th-century font was back in Coombe Keynes, this time located in a corner of the old chancel, the NE, not its original location, the NW, as shown in Hicks' architectural drawing. Since the church is no longer used for liturgical functions but rather as a town hall, the font is not used for baptisms in its original abode. The fon t was drawn on April 8, 1861 by Hicks' pupil, Thomas Hardy [the drawing is archived in the Dorset Couty Museum at Dochester. [We are grateful to Michael Day, native of Wool, bellringer and metadata expert, for the exhaustive information on the avatars of this baptismal font]. The source www.bath.ac.uk/~lismd/ dorset/wool/church-guide.html informs that "this font was originally thought to be Saxon but it would now appear to be 13th century."