Hilperton

The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 7, 1953) notes: "In 1291 the church at Hilperton was valued at £5 [...] With the exception of the tower, it was rebuilt in 1848 [...] The registers date from 1694 and are complete [...] In 1893 a 12th-century font bowl found in Whaddon churchyard was set up on a new stone base and circular shaft. It replaced a 19thcentury font which was moved to the chapel of ease at Hilperton Marsh". The corresponding VCH (ibid.) entry for Whaddon notes: "The dedication of the church is not known: it is referred to locally as St. Mary the Virgin although in 1886 the Ordnance Survey gave the name as St. Michael. [...] The church was built at least as early as the 12th century. [...] The bowl of a 12th-century font found 'many years' before 1894 in Whaddon churchyard was in that year set up in Hilperton church. One side of the bowl shows signs of having been burnt." Cox & Harvey (1907) write: "In Hilperton church there was set up, in 1892, the remarkable circular bowl of an early Norman font, which had been dug up in the churchyard of the adjacent parish of Whaddon. Round it is worked an arcade of thirteen semicircular arches; above the arcades are spandrel carvings of conventional leaves. This font is illustrated and described by Mr. Ponting in vol. xxvii. of the Wilts Magazine". Described and illustrated in Buck (1951) as a font of the late Norman period, ca. 1150-1200 [NB: Buck (ibid.), too, mentions the digging up and re-installation of the font]. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Circular, Norman. With low arches and odd single leaves above them. The font was found in a pond at Whaddon (PF)." Listed in Stocker (1997) as one in a group of "font bowls buried in churchyard or adjacent vicarage garden" [NB: Stocker has this font listed under "Warks.", but gives the Cox & Harvey entry above as reference]. Noted in the Wiltshire Community History [http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getchurch.php?id=815] [accessed 8 September 2008]: "The Norman font was originally in Whaddon church, where it was replaced in 1837 and, after being deposited in various places it was installed in St. Michael's by the architect, C.E. Ponting in 1892-4." NB: the Hilperton Marsh Church of St. Mary was built in the late-19th century.