West Down / Westdown

Noted and illustrated in Hussell (1910): "The first church was no doubt of Norman date, for the font is Norman [...] The font [...] was found under the floor during the restoration of the church. It is of stone, and has evidently passed through some rough times. It is not very pretty, but can boast of being some 800 years or so old, and has a coating of buff colouring, put on some years ago to try to improve its hoary appearance perhaps." Clarke (1920) refers to Hussell (1910) and notes: "Evidently [...] it was originally a subdivided cushion bowl [i.e., scalloped], in which trhe diagonals of the cones, though shorter than at Berry Norbor [cf. Index entry for Berrynarbor], shwed in the same way. Whatever was its condition before it was buried it is not now very easy to describe. It appears that the bowl on all four sides was cut into an horizantal line about 2 inches above the necking, to the depth of 1 1/2 inches, and the intervening stone removed, the lower surface forming a very rough chamfer. It is impossible to say with what object this was done; the result is that the lower part of the cones is destroyed; the first impression gathered is that there was an attempt to break up the cones into two orders, one behind the other. On the eatern face the central cone is almost perfect, except for the horizontal gash, and of the north-western corner only a little of the scallop is gone, so the original form can be deduced; it was a subdivided cushion, but it has been so much hacked about that some parts are almost amorphous. The stone appears to be limestone, but it is thickly coated with yellow ochre. There are some axe markings on the upper part. The shaft is cylindrical; the plinth is circular where it receives the base, the slopes and becomes an irregular octagon. The basin is square, and it is lead-lined." Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Norman, raw, as if the decoration has been hacked off."