Margaretting

Noted in Coller (1861) as "a fine font" inside the church at Margaretting. Described as "a magnificent work of the same date [ca. 1525], octangular in form and panelled and highly moulded in the plinth as well as in the shaft and top", in Piggot's Essex 1832-3 Trade Directory [in www.essexpubs.net/Directories/Ingatestone2.htm]. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period [NB: C&H appear to indicate that it was engraved by Paley, but Paley's 1844 work does not contain an entry for this font]. Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: octagonal--sides of bowl and base moulded, panelled and carved; on the bowl various designs, including a Tudor rose, square and compasses and acorns, a crown, a mitre, etc.; panelled stem; late 15th-century." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Octagonal, Perp[endicular], with quatrefoils carrying flowers, a crown, a mitre, a head with tongue put out." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add: "Nice ogee-domed cover". The Eseltech site [www.eseltech.co.uk/margarettingchurch/html/history.html] notes the symbols in the panels: "Mitre; square and compasses; acorns; a face with a protruding tongue; leaves; a rose leaf and crown".