Wisbech St. Mary No. 1

Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk (1883: 143) [http://apling.freeservers.com/Villages/WisbechStMary.htm] [accessed 26 April 2016] [Transcription Copyright © E.C."Paddy" Apling] reports "the font is much older than the present church" (which it describes as Perpendicular). Kelly's Directory of the county for 1929 reports "the remains of an ancient font" in the south porch [source: 1999 transcription by Martin Edwards in GENUKI [ww.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CAM/WisbechStMary/] [accessed 26 April 2016]. [It also mentions a holy-water stoup there -- cf. Index entry for Wisbech St. Mary No. 2]. The Parish web site [www.wisbechstmary.org.uk] [accessed 22 December 2007], however states: "Just inside the Entrance Door is the Baptistry. The Font is 14th century with an octagonal bowl and shaft. Seven sides of the bowl are flatly carved with ogee arches; the eighth side has one quatrefoil in a circle." The Victoria County History (Cambridge..., vol. 4, 2002) notes: "Bishop Northwold, when ordaining the vicarage of Wisbech in 1252, specified that the priest appointed should conduct services in the chapel of Kilhus in Wisbech St. Mary. [...] The fabric is of 14th-century origin. [...] The 14th-century reconstruction of the chapel produced a building of considerable size, and in 1535 it was officially mentioned as capella Beate Marie, though still not separately valued. [...] St. Mary's did not finally achieve its independence until 1854. [...] The font is of the 14th century with an octagonal bowl and shaft; the sides of the bowl have arcading except in one case, where there is a quatrefoil contained in a circle."