Saltfleetby All Saints

The Kelly directories of Lincolnshire for both 1885 and 1905 mention a font of the Early English period in the Parish Church of All Saints, Saltfleetby [source: www.salftfleetby.co.uk]. Fowler (1874) describes the font as "a good specimen of the same style [Transitional], but has lost its shaft, and a later font reversed forms its base." Sutton (1898) notes: "The font of Purbeck marble. This seems to have been reset at some susequent date upon a much later font." Betjeman (1958: 247) describes the font as "a good 13th-century" one. Aegerter (1980) reproduces some notes from a brief history by the late Reverend Keith Jones, Rector of All Saints' from 1959 to 1968; the notes "appeared as a series of articles during 1962/3 in 'The Marshlander' - which he edited", and were re-printed later as an information booklet under the title 'All Saints' Church Saltfleetby--A Short History". The following excerpt is gathered from those notes: "A font was provided, of Purbeck marble [...]; at some date it seems to have been removed and replaced by another, of some 200 years' later date. Later again, the bowl of the original font was returned to the church and placed upon the inverted second font, where it stands to this day." Described in Pevsner, Harris and Antram (1989): "The octagonal bowl with quatrefoils looks late C13. It sits on a column with four filleted shafts with rolls between each pair, but the underside shows that it should in fact be on a pillar with eight sgafts. The base appears to be tha inverted base of a C14 font, with grotesques." The composite nature of this font is also noted in Stocker (1997). The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: TF4552090418] notes: "Parish church, now redundant. C12, C13, C14, C15, 1611, 1873, repaired 1886 [...] Font consisting of 3 separate moulded sections, with C13 octagonal bowl with large trefoils on each face and the filleted capitals of 8 clustered shafts replaced by cluster of C14 filleted pier mouldings, with C15 richly carved octagonal base, possibly a bowl set upside down, with panel tracery and 4 large grotesque heads."