Shrewsbury No. 2 / Pengwern

Neale (1825) writes: "Near the western end of the north aisle is the font, which is of great antiquity, and once belonged to the ancient Church of High Ercal. The pedestal stands upon an elevated area, paved with very curious ancient glazed tiles, some of which were found on the spot once occupied by the Refectory of the Abbey". A baptismal font is reported in this church in Tymms (1834). Poole (1842) writes: "in St. Giles' which is not a parish church, and has no right to a font, there are two: -- one of them at the east end of the north aisle, and the other absolutely within the chancel. You will take it for granted that the font in the Abbey Church is the original Norman font remaining there from the first foundation of the church. No such thing. There was an ancient font in the abbey, though not so ancient as might have been expected, but that is the one which now stands in the chancel of St Giles. Its place is occupied by one which twenty or thirty years ago was ejected from the neighbouring church of High Ercal, to make way for a modern contrivance; and which long lay forgotten by every one, except the countrymen who used it to whet their knives on, a treatment of which it still bears the marks. As for the second font in St. Giles', it was probably once the capital of a Norman pillar, and well enough serves its present purpose of looking like a font, where a font ought not to be." Anderson (1864), in his entry for High Ercall, notes: "The old Norman font, which formerly belonged to Ercall Church, is now in Shrewsbury Abbey." This must be the same illustrated in a 1838 sketch by Henry E.L. Dryden [the sketch now in the Northamptonshire Central Library]. The font consists of a round basin with tapering sides decorated with a band of chevron or zig-zag below the upper rim, with an arcade containing stylised or simplistic figures and motifs; raised on a circular ccolum decorated with nested chevron all around; round-to-square lower base. A watercolour by Edwin H. Judd, dated Jan. 1952, and now at the Shrewsbury Museum, shows this font together with the font at Wroxeter, both claimed to be re-carvings of Anglo-Roman columns. The circular font has three graded mouldings on the basin area, a plain cylindrical stem and a rol moulding at the end ot it; it stands on a narrow polygonal lower base or plinth. Stocker (1997) illustrates the "Font at St Mary's Abbey Shrewsbury (Salop.) The font bowl is a re-cut base from a a column in a major Roman building -- probably at Virconium (Wroxeter) ten miles to the south" [NB: St Mary's was a collegiate church founded in 970 -- the abbey church (of St. Peter and St. Paul), was founded by Roger de Montgomery in 1083]. The font illustrated in Stocker bears a crown-like font cover of much later date, very ornate and with a pointed polygonal upper volume. Newman & Pevsner (2006) write: "Font. Very large, moulded; a reused Roman capital."