Yealmpton No. 1

Described and illustrated in Clarke (1915): "Of this Norman font only the bowl remains; no suport appears to have been preserved, but its shape, style and proportions are those of the upper part of a girdled tub-font; it is so broad at the base that it can hardly have stood on a shaft, or at any rate only on a very thick one". Clarke then comments on the low-relief ornamentation that surrounds the sides of the basin: "Round the upper part are courses of ornament which are neither herringbone nor nebulé, but a combination of both. There are two rows of the ornament; the individual parts are carefully and evenly worked, but the bands themselves fall into irregular wavy lines. Below is a series of oblique strips about an inch wide, most of them terminating in a curl". Clarke goes on at length about these motifs: "Hitherto I have not found anything in ecclesiastical art resembling this font except the 'discs of Creation' at La Sainte Chapelle, Paris, and Rouen Cathedral, in which clouds are represented by bands of nebulé similar to those on the bowl; but there the resemblance stops". Clarke appears to reject the possible symbolism of water, but offers no other match for what she finds so fascinating. She does state that although the object is very irregular both inside and out, "it is clear that it really was a font, for in the rim are remnants of the staples which once held the cover. The ornament is worked with an axe; the tooth marks are fine, indicating a rather late Norman period; this also accords with the close twist of the cable which finishes the bowl." There is no known base for this object, and in Clarke's time [1915]: "it stands on a stool in a corner of that part of the north transept which is used as a vestry". In Pevsner (1952): "Bowl of circular Norman font carved with wavy lines in low relief." [cf. Index entry for Yealmpton No. 2 for a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period also in this church]