Pipe Ridware

Reported in Lewis' Dictionary of 1831 as one of the most remarkable fonts in the county. Described in Tymms (1834) as "sculptured with circles interlaced". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the early Norman period. Noted and illustrated in The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (2005) [http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/ed/st/hamst/index.htm] [accessed 28 June 2007]: "Located in the S aisle opposite S doorway. A cup-shaped 12thc. bowl standing on a low modern cylindrical shaft and plinth. The bowl is lead lined and presumably useable, and is decorated on the bowl with 15 intersecting beaded rings below a loose and irregular two-strand interlace." Described with an illustration in Phil Draper [www.geocities.com/churchcrawler/2001/2001.htm] [accessed 5 December 2006] under his entry for Hamstall Ridware St Michael's: "The church had the rather splendid Norman font from the redundant church at nearby Pipe Ridware". The illustration in Draper shows a large hemispherical basin the sides of which have a simple and rather crude two-strand interlace around the upper 1/3, and a beautifully executed pattern of interlaced circles of beaded-tape motif all around; the contrast between the two interlaces could hardly be more marked: the upper crude and ungainly, the lower sharp and exact; squat cylindrical stem and minimalistic lower base, the latter perhaps modern. Flat plain wooden cover probably modern as well. [cf. Index entry for a second font in Hamstall Ridware]