Heytesbury No. 2 / Haytchbury / Hegtredesbyri / Hestrebe

The Handbook for travellers… (1869) reports this church re-opened in 1867 after the restoration by Butterfield: "A new font was given by Rev. R. Beadon"; there is no mention of the whereabouts of the font from the old church that had, according to this same source, been made collegiate by Jocelyn Bishop of Sarum, ca. 1165. The present font in this church [cf. Index entry for Heytesbury No. 2] dates from the 'over-restoration' -as Pevsner (1975) describes it- by Butterfield in 1865. Octagonal baptismal font from the refurbishing of this church by William Butterfield, the Victorian architect. It is a rather awkward object, the octagonal basin decorated with a band of zig-zag around its middle and an inscription below, round pegs issuing from the underbowl to match the round colonnettes of the base; thick central shaft inside the circle of colonnettes. Low pyramidal font cover, wooden and eight-sided. [cf. Index entry for Heytesbury No. 1 for the earlier font of this church]