Fontmell Magna No. 1 / Fontmel Magna / Great Fontmel

Noted in the 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874): "The ancient font is very curious, apparently Norman. The circular bowl has a running scroll round it, issuing from the bills of birds." The Handbook for travellers… (1869) states: "the font is Norman". Noted in Long (1923): "round bowl with bands of foliage on it." Mee (1939) writes: "Standing by one font is another made by the Normans, rather battered but with birds and twining stems carved around it." In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Norman, of cauldron shape. The bowl has rather irregular trails and eight birds." Described in Stanier (2004) as one of several "carved Norman fonts of special quality". The Dorset OPC [on-line parish clerk] site [www.dorset-opc.com] informs: "The font is Norman, it is made from greensand and is carved in high relief with foliate scrolls and birds". The font consists of a roughly hemispherical basin decorated with high-relief foliage motifs, raised on a cylindrical pedestal with roll mouldings at each end; the lower base and the plinth appear modern, as does the flat wooden cover. The Dorset OPC site illustrates both this font and a Victorian font no longer in use [NB: the latter is not listed separately in this Index]. [NB: a third bowl in this church, old and crudely rendered, as well as damaged, is noted and illustrated in The Dorset Historic Churches Trust [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk/fontellmagna.htm]: "In a corner, below a most attrative stained glass window, rests the remains of a font thought to be at least a thousand years old." [NB: as Bond (1908) noted throughout his work, one should not equate crudeness of workmanship with ancient pedigree -- the bowl in question could very well be ancient, but hardly of the 10th century] [cf. Index entry for Fontmell Magna No. 2 for the old damaged bowl, and for Fontmell Magna No. 3 for the Victorian disused font still kept in this same church]. [We are grateful to Lynda Mudle-Small for the photographs of this font]