Christow

No entry found for Christow in the Domesday survey. Described in Lysons (1806-1822) as one of a group of "square Saxon fonts on circular pillars, or pedestals." A pencil sketch by Samuel Lysons is reported in the Catalogue of the manuscript maps, charts and plans [...] in the British Museum..., vol. 1, (1844): 313 [Add. 9464. fol. 24. The font is reported in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 as a Norman font. Ditto in Murray's Handbook for travellers […] (1865). In Stabb (1908): "an old square font." Described in Clarke (19120): "Although this is a scalloped bowl it is abnormal in design. In every other instance it will be seen that the sides are flush with the vertical face of the cones, though sometimes there is an incised line which only breaks the continuity very slightly. The cones on the Christow font display their diagonals plainly; above them is a chamfer sloping inwards, to meet a strip of stone edged above and below by a square moulding 1 1/2 inches wide; the strip including the mouldings measures 6 inches: the cones project beyond it, producing a curious effect. It is, in fact, an entablature, which ought to have rested on an abacus, which abacus would have projected beyond both cones and entablature, and, to my mind, the bowl seems to cry aloud for the missing member. I strongly suspect that this strip is the work of modern times; the stone is thick enough to allow of these pranks, and a glane at the print of Berry Narbor font [cf. Index entry for Berrynarbor] will show how it could be done. There is a substantial round moulding as necking, and the cones die into it. There are three cones on each side; the vertical faces measure about 9 x 4 1/2 inches, the slopes 2 1/2 in the middle cones, and the corner cones 5 to 5 1/2 inches. The basin is circular, and it has a lead lining. The bowl is painted drab, but from a few spots where the paint has scaled off I judge it to be of Salcombe stone." Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Square, Norman, each side of three big scallops (cf. Cadbury, Nether Exe.)" The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SX8361485041] notes: "Parish church. C12 font, medieval fabric C15, restoration of 1862 [...] C12 font with a square scalloped bowl on a replaced cylindrical stem and plinth." The font may have two modern covers: it appears as a plain and flat round cover in a 20 January 2014 photograph by Robert Slack in Flickr [www.flickr.com/photos/robertslack/12104414383/] [accessed 24 May 2020] and a square cover in a photograph in Cornish Churches [www.cornishchurches.com/Christow Church Devon - St. James/index.htm] [accessed 24 May 2020].