Northiam No. 2

Harrison (1920) does not mention the font here, but notes some probable Saxon work in the otherwise Norman tower of this church. The baptismal font now [2005] in place in this church is a table-top type font of medieval design, but the actual work appears to be recent [could it be a drastic re-carving?]. The church itself dates from ca. 1200 and this font design would be quite suited to it. The font consists of a square basin of slightly tapering sides decorated with a shallow-relief blind arcade of round arches, four per side; the basin well is round with no other decoration; the base, clearly a modern one, follows the design of this type of font: broad central shaft with four outer colonnettes at 90-degree angles, all raised on a square lower base and matching plinth. The centre shaft is made of smaller blocks of stone. The font cover is modern. The Sussex Parish Churches web site [www.sussexparishchurches.org/content/view/251/34/] [accessed 30 January 2013] notes: "Fonts: 1) Dated 1931, copying the standard C12 square marble font found all over Sussex, by A S Haynes (CDG Feb 1931 p81). - 2) Small C18 marble fluted bowl on a baluster. Ejected in 1931 and put back in 1968 (1 p16)." [cf. Index entry for Northiam No. 1 for a neo-Classical font reported by Tyrrell-Green in this church].