Little Laver

Noted with an illustration in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923) as one of "a curious group of four square bowls (Abbess Roding, Fryerning, Little Laver [...] and Moreton), somewhat rudely carved with various designs including the sun, moon, stars, whorl (for a comet?), etc." Of this particular font the RCHM (ibid.) writes: "bowl of square plan with sloping sides carved with foliage, fleur-de-lis, crescent disc, stars and whorl, etc., probably late 12th or early 13th-century, stem and base modern." Noted and illustrated in the Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 4,1956): "Nothing is left of the pre-13th-century church except the font. [...] The square font bowl is of the late 12th century and is similar in character to those in some neighbouring parishes. [...] The base is an addition of 1872 (fn. 59) and the carving of the bowl was probably recut at the same time. The decoration includes the fleur-de-lis, crescent, disk, and whorl found on other fonts of the type." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Square, c.1200. The four sides have decoration with a trail of stylized foliage of the usual Norman type, three fleur-de-lis, sun, moon, a whorl, two roses, and two rosettes, and two four-petalled flowers or rather quatrefoils with rose centres. This latter detail especially makes it likely that the sculptural representation has been re-cut." This font is similar to those at Abbess Roding and Fryerning [cf. Index entry for Fryerning]. The base of the font at the time of the RCHM entry [cf. supra] consisted of a set of square columns with very ornate capitals; the present base [September 2009] consists of a set of plain round columns, a broader one in the centre, four slender ones at the angles; the lower base is a plain square block devoid of ornamentation. The wooden font is pyramidal square and it looks like the bell tower of a Scandinavian wooden church; counterweight lifting system; probably late-19th centry. [NB: the present church does not have a bell tower, but the VCH entry [cf. supra] quotes from Morant's Essex: "In about 1768 the church was described as 'small, of one pace, and the same width, with the chancel, and the whole tyled. The belfry stands in the middle of the church, with a spire shingled, in which there is only 1 bell." -- An unconfirmed source [www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=1bd4e167-a9c4-46a4-b5b5-31c03ed15b6d ] accessed 3 April 2012] notes: "Unfortunately, in November 1957, the Bell Towercollapsed bringing down more that half of the West wall and damaging the font."