Bondleigh / Bundleigh / Bundley

Listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as one of a group of square baptismal fonts in the county that are "for the most part supported by four pillars and a large pedestal in the centre". Noted simply as "an ancient font" in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848. Reported in the National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868): "The church, which is partly Norman, is dedicated to St. James. It has an old font" [transcribed by Colin Hinson, 2003, in the GENUKI site for Bondleigh [www.cs.nl.ac.uk/genuki/DEV/Bondleigh/Gaz1868.html]. Described and illustrated in Stabb (1908): "The bowl of the Norman font rests on a central and four smaller shafts [...], the four smaller shafts are of later date." Clarke (1922) describes it as one nine Devon 'table fonts' (Bondleigh, Hennock, Holbeton, Honiton Clyst, Mariansleigh, North Lew, Petrockstowe, Roseash and Washfield) that belong to the thirteenth century, "though the ornament on the bowls is of that date their heavy construction suggests a Norman origin, so that they have often been wrongly attributed to the twelfth century". Described in Pevsner (1952): "Norman also is the font, square, of table-top type, with large elementary zigzag, four-lobed leaf, semicircle and blank arcade motifs." [cf. Index entry for Clyst Honiton for a full description and measurements of this type of font] [[We are grateful to Dr. Roger Peters, of www.wissensdrang.com, for his permission to use the transcription of and images from Stabb (1908)]