Crewkerne / Cruche

There are two entries for Crewkerne [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST4409/crewkerne/] [accessed 13 February 2018], one of which, in the lordship of the abbey of St-Etienne de Caen, reports a church in it. Pulman (1854) writes: "The font bears evidence of great antiquity. It is of granite, and ornamented with arches very similar to those on the font at Beaminster church […] It rests upon a square pedestal with circular pillars at the angles", and gives its location at the west end of the nave. Noted in Holmes (1922) as "an ancient font" belonging to the old church [NB: not clear from the context whether the 15th-century church or an earlier church in this site]. Wade & Wade (1929) report an "ancient square font on modern base" in this church. Described in Pevsner (1958): "Square, Norman, of Purbeck marble, with six blank flat arches with segmented heads on each face." The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 4, 1978) notes: "The church of Crewkerne was a minster [...] of Saxon origin, probably founded by one of the royal owners of the estate [...] At the Conquest the church, with 10 hides of land and all the tithes of its 'territory', was given by William I to the abbey of St. Stephen, Caen (Calvados) [...] Part of a late-13th-century arch incorporated in the east wall of the south transept suggests that there was a church of cruciform plan by that time [...] the church is [chiefly] the product of a major rebuilding of the late 15th or early 16th century [...] The Purbeck marble font, of Norman pillared design, is the earliest item of furniture." The entry for this font in Donovan & Reid (1962-1963) notes: "Font. This is massive and square with six semi-circular blank arches in each face.As with so many early plain fonts it is difficult to date accurately, but would probably be described as Norman. The whole is of Purbeck, and, if the date is correctis a remarkably early example, even in the south of the county, of this stone." The Parish website [http://www.stbartholomew-crewkerne.org/tour1-font.htm] [accessed 15 March 2008] notes and illustrates the font and cover: "The font is very early and likely came from the earlier Norman church. The base is of later date and the font cover is of Victorian-Gothic descent, originally installed in the town's sister church, All Saints, now demolished". The entry for this church in the CRSBI (2018) notes: "The only Romanesque work here is the Purbeck font [...] The font is located in the S aisle just E of the S door. The bowl is of the normal Purbeck marble table type with six blank flat segmental arches on each face. It is in grey-blue Purbeck and in good condition. To judge from the joints at the angles it is in four blocks. The arches are fairly even, except on the N face. The bowl is not lined. The sides of the basin are vertical and the bottom is flat. The bowl is supported by a central cylinder and slender cylindrical shafts at the four corners. The corner shafts have double-rolls at the foot and single rolls at the top. These shafts are of hamstone or similar, as is the base. There is no plinth [...] The font is comparable in its form and material with other W Somerset examples (Brushford, Cutcombe,West Buckland). The most noticeable difference is that there is no handsome central column here at Crewkerne; instead, just an unmoulded cylinder. There is a similar pedestal under a similarly shaped but otherwise simpler bowl in Dorset, at Powerstock." Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "bowl with six panels on each face" [source given: Pevsner, 1958].