Yatesbury / Yattysbury

The National Archives online site [www.nationalarchives.gov.uk], in its 'The Money-Kirley Family' list of holdings in the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, include a "Copy of 'The Builder' including an engraving of Yatesbury church font and a letter about the same" [ref. 1720/923 -- 1844]. The Gentleman;s Magazine issue of March 1844, p. 296) reports a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries on 1 February, in which, "Mr. C.J. Richardson exhibited drawings […] . They were accompanied by a drawing of the font at Yatesbury church, […] a curious and rich specimen of the ornamental style of the end of the twelfth century." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period, "an excellent instance of bold good workmanship; it has a circular bowl and shaft, the bowl springing from a vigorous garland of an early form of acanthus leaf". C&H (ibid.) inform that this font "is illustrated in the Wilts Magazine (vol. xviii.)". Buck (1951) remarks that the "upcurving leaves" on the bowls of the Yatesbury and Patney fonts "are a feature of the Western Cistercian style", an association that Buck refers to F. H. Crossley in his 'English Church Craftmanship'. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Circular, Norman, with large coarse upright leaves and a band of trails below." The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 17, 2002) notes: "Yatesbury church was standing in the 13th century and perhaps in the 12th. [...] The animal-head label stops of a reset doorway are 12th-century and the oldest masonry in the church. [...] In 1854 the church was restored"; there is no mention of a font in the VCH entry for this parish. Described and illustrated in Draper (2004): "Pretty Norman Font, with a band of upright leaves around the base of the bowl and a scrolly band near the top." The font is covered with an old-style lid, of the type that is secured to the basin via a long metal piece that is anchored into staples at opposite ends; unable to determine whether late medieval or a replica.