Cleckheaton / Hetone

There is an entry for [Cleck]Heaton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SE1925/cleckheaton/] [accessed 16 October 2018] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. There is 1773 ink-wash-on-paper drawing of this font by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794) in the British Library collections [Shelfmark: Additional MS 15548 - Item number: f. 99]; the drawing is captioned: "base of the font at the old white Chapel in the North: York". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Morris (1932) notes "a really interesting Trans[itional] circular font [...] has cable moulding round the top, and an interesting arcade, with demi-figures in some of the arches." Cradock (1933) notes a Norman font in Cleckheaton Chapel: "A Norman Font bears witness to the oldest Chapel [...] Till recent years its base was sunk in the floor of the Church, and it served as a pedestal for another Font of 1706. It was restored to its original use by the Vicar, the Rev. R.F. Taylor (who died in 1886) and his two sons. It is tub-shaped, and covered with an interlaced arcaded moulding. More than half its fifteen compartments are filled with geometrical patterns. Thre contain a human head or bust; two others the nude figures of a woman and probably of a man; all very roughly incised. We cannot endure that these figures have any significance [but the footnote reads: "Sometimes the last-named figures represent Adam and Eve, and so refer to the Fall [...]"]. In any case, it fixes the first half of the twelfth century as the date of the first stone Chapel." Cradock (ibid.) notes that one of the Vicars, Lake, was charged in 1661, during the Restoration, with not being a "lawful minister" and "having declined to set up the font in its old place. letting it lie indecently in the Belfry in scorn and derision", and [Lake] was thereby ejected in 1662. Cradock (ibid.) suggests a date for the font between 1120 and 1150, and notes that a sketch of the old font was made by "a Swiss artist, Samuel Hieronymous Grimm (1734-94)". Further on Cradock (ibid.) notes: The ancient Font became the base for the new one which was a joint gift of Dr. Richardson and his wife. It bears the Arms of his wife (née Currer) as well as his own." Of the later developments Cradock (ibid.) notes: "During Marley's incumbency (1886-93) the Church was modernised. The old Font was restored". Cradock (ibid.) also notes that a late-18th century plan of the church shows "that the Font had not been removed from the south-west corner to near the Chancel Arch". The Open Churches Trust web site [www.openchurchestrust.org.uk/Cleckheaton.htm] informs: "The church has been rebuilt many times and in 1706 it was said to be in a ruinous state, with sheep grazing on the land and lambs sheltering in the ruin. The Norman font was lying damaged in the grounds. The Lord of the Manor Dr Richard Richardson gave financial support to the rebuilding project and also had a fine new font made, bearing his Coat of Arms. The original font was inverted and used as the base. However, during the 19th century, the Reverend R.F. Taylor decided to reinstate the Norman font on a new plinth and the Richardson font was relegated to a position in the churchyard." Noted in Pevsner (1986 c1967) as a Norman font. Noted and illustrated in Ryder (1993). The baptismal font is of the tub type; the basin is almost cylindrical, but rather irregular, splaying out slightly at the bottom; the sides are decorated with a variety of motifs: at the upper rim a braid (or double rope motif); below it an arcade of round intersecting arches; inside the arches are a number of humanoid grotesque figures, all carved without legs except one, a Sheela-na-Gig in the classical posture of arms forward and down, bent at the elbows, showing her genitalia; her legs continue over the bulge of the lower side splaying; the other arches have either scroll, geometric (torsade, chevron forming rhomboid shapes) or Tree-of-Life motifs. The font has been reconstructed from the pieces into which it had been broken up, and is mounted on a modern lower base [according to Ye Olde White Chapel in the North web site, "it was restored to its position by the Rev. R.F. Taylor in 1886 to commemorate the death of his wife -- a set of illustrations of this font is available in their web site: www.ye-olde-white-chapel-in-the-north.co.uk/font.htm. Harman & Pevsner (2017) suggest date "c. 1100". The entry for this church in the CRSBI by Rita Wood remarks on the likelyhood of the Sheela-Na-Gig on it being a re-caving: "The patterns of the arcade, geometric patterns and scrolling patterns (that is, foliage-related stems), carry an association with heaven and paradise; the demi-figures within the arcade would therefore refer to people in heaven or paradise, these would be role-models for the baptized (Wood 2001). The sheela on the SW side of the font does not belong in this context, and it is likely to be a late alteration of a figure which was originally similar to that in the adjacent bay to the R. Other objections to the sheela being original are that it is the only carving which extends into the worn integral plinth, and that the inturned feet are not seen in 12thc. imagery known to the writer (for example, there are none in the Bayeux Tapestry, where feet of both living and dead turn in the same direction). There was time enough while the font was out of use and the building was in decay for someone to carve the vulva and legs on an existing demi-figure."