Bredwardine / Bradwardine / Brocheurdie

There is an entry for Bredwardine [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SO3344/bredwardine/] [accessed 1 May 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. A font in this church is recorded in Dineley (aka Dingley, 1868) Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Described in Halsey (1987) as one of eight baptismal fonts "made of a local reddish brown, psammitic limestone, called 'Breccia' or 'Cornstone'", that were the work of the Herefordshire School [NB: the eight fonts are: Bishops Frome, Bosbury, Bredwardine, Kilpeck, Kingstone, Madley, Turnastone and Vowchurch] [cf. infra for an additional one suggested by Thurlby]. It is round shaped and raised on a columnar base, the latter consisting of a broaf central shaft and "four corner legs, of about 5" diameter, are made of one piece of stone incorporating the capital, shaft and base [...] capitals and bases that are almost interchangeable and similar to cushion capitals". Halsey (ibid.) dates the font to the middle of the 12th century. Herefordshire (1931-1934) identifies the stone as breccia and dates the font to the late 12th century; it describes the font cover as "of oak with central turned post and pierced terminal and four curved struts, 17th century." Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015) with likely date "in the third quarter of the 12thc". Thurlby (2006) adds Llantilio Crossenny (Gwent / Monmouthshire) as a smaller version of this group. [NB: the diameter of the Bredwardine font, calculated from a circumference of 3.76 m as given in the CRSBI [cf. measurements] is 119.68 cm; the diameter of the Kilpeck font, which is almost identical otherwise, is only 107 cm]