Churchill nr. Weston-super-Mare

Wade & Wade (1929) report an "old font" in this church. There is no mention of any font in Pevsner (1958). Noted in the National Monuments Record, English Heritage [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=33940] [accessed 10 September 2009]: "C13 font bowl with C19 cover". Described and Illustrated in the CRSBI [https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=13065] [accessed 18 August 2024]: "The only Romanesque sculpture is the font [...] The font is ignominiously shoved up flush with the west side of the westernmost pier of the S arcade. At the time of the author’s visit it was also encumbered by furniture. Although simple in design, this tub-font is a fine piece and deserves better ― not to mention the practical convenience and dignity of celebrant and congregation participating in christenings. There is plenty of room centrally at the west end of the nave, where it could enjoy a prouder prominence and provide more ambient space. There appear to be at least four distinct varieties of stone used in the font, which gives it a subdued but clear and pleasing polychromaticism. The circular part of the plinth is in a dark, bluish, stone ― as so often. The base, the western extension of the plinth-plus-base, and the bowl are in a lighter-coloured stone. The rim of the bowl looks darker. The stem is in the local red sandstone (a most unusual and remarkable feature, although there is a lot of Devonian sandstone in Somerset. Red Hill, to the NE, up which runs the A38 on its way to Bristol past the airport, is so-called after the prominent sandstone of its surface soil.) The base is cut so as to appear to consist of two superimposed blocks, their slight difference in horizontal dimensions allowing a chamfer. Most unusually (uniquely in the author’s experience), the western extension for the celebrant is brought up flush to the base, rather than being an extension of the plinth only. The cylindrical stem is marked off at both ends with two rolls, the outer being considerably the larger. There is another roll running round the bottom of the bowl, giving therefore three rings in this area. The bowl is an unblemished tub, most beautifully shaped and cut (recalling the similar but larger bowl in hamstone at Shepton Beauchamp in the south of the county). The rim is confidently brought out in a roll away from the top of the bowl. Good lead is brought up to and across the rim, where it has been cut to make a kind of frieze of semi-circles (perhaps not entirely appropriately)." Described in the Open Churches Trust web site [www.openchurchestrust.org.uk/Churchill.htm]: "The stone font is believed to be 800 years old and to have originated from these times [1180 AD] although the wooden font cover was added in 1879 when there was a revival in gothic designs." An article by Andrew Plaster in B&AFHS Journal (122 December 2005) [http://www.bafhs.org.uk/parishes/churchill/churchill1.htm] [accessed 12 March 2008] reports "two fonts (the oldest Norman)".