Pakenham

Not mentioned in Parker (1855). Described and illustrated in N.R. Whitwell's 'Pakenham, village of two mills': baptismal font of the 14th century, probably ca. 1350, in the Perpendicular style; the octagonal basin is decorated with the four symbols of the Lord (pelican. lamb, unicorn and lion) alternating with the symbols of the four Evangelists (angel, lion, ox and eagle), in deep relief; the underbowl has winged cherub at the angles, their wings flowing back and downwards in the shape of the chamfer; the octagonal base alternates four flat sides decorated with foliage and tracery in the shape of pairs of trefoil arches, with four buttress-like sides in the shape of a large seated figure; according to this same source they are four monks, one of which is in meditation while the other three hold an object each: a treasurer's satchel, a breviary and a reliquary. Whitwell writes of the cover: "Beautiful carved wooden cover in the shape of a spire and is suspended by a wire from the roof [ceiling?] which enables the cover to be removed for baptisms." No date given for the cover. [source: transcription of Whitwell in www.pakenham-village.co.uk]. The font is described and illustrated in Knott (1999?) as "a great delight" but "most unusual. Instead of angels, it features a bestiary accompanying the Evangelistic symbols. There is a fine unicorn, and a pelican-in-her-piety. Even more charming are the monks who sit around the shaft beneath. One is reading, another meditating, the other two holding objects. Mortlock thought they were a treasurer's satchel and a reliquary, but Jeremy Bangs tells me that it could be a book bag - you can find such books with bags attached in medieval paintings and sculptures. The whole thing is surmounted by one of those neurotic towering font covers, familar from Hadleigh and Bury St James, the fruit of tentative 1930s triumphalism."