St. Michael in Penkevil / St. Michael in Penkevill / St. Michael in Penkivel / Chapel Meadow?

The Western Antiquary (issue of April 1887, vol. VI, no. 11, p. 268 #166) published the following query: "Some years ago the Rev. Featherstone Lake Os[l]er was driving by a farm in parish of St Michael Penkivel near Truro when a font and cross were pointed out to him lying dirty neglected on the ground As no one on the spot seemed set much value on them he purchased them and sent to Canada, where they were placed in the church at Dundas, Ontario, of which he was then the rector. It appears that in the farm there was a field called the Chapel Meadow; possibly a chapel once existed there, and the font and cross may have come from that building. Can any correspondent furnish further information on the subject and say what was the exact name of the farm. George C. Boase. 15, Quuen Anne's Gate. Westminster". The reply to that query appears in The Western Antiquary (issue of May 1887, vol. 6, no. 12, p. 303: "Mr. Boase will forgive me for pointing out that he is not quite correct in remarking that the old Cornish cross and font that the Rev Fealherstone Lake Osler--who is a Cornishman, and a native of Falmouth--procured in Cornwall, are now at his church at Dundas, in Ontario. They are really both in the church of West Fambro', near Hamilton, which, however, until some eight years or so ago, was part of Dundas parish, bul has since then been a parish of itself. When on a visit to Canada a few summers ago, I learned the following interesting particulars from Mr. Osler relative to these venerable emigrants to the New World. The font is supposed to have belonged to an ancient British church--Mr Osier supposes of the early part of the fifth century--situated some seven miles from Truro, but of which nothing now remains save a stone or two. The font bowl, together with a Tau Cross, from this desecrated edifice, had long been in the possession of a friend of Mr Osler, who, on the reverend gentleman's visit home, presented them to him, and they were in due course conveyed to Canada. Mr Osler then had this bowl fastened to ihe (fragmentary) monolith of the Tau Cross--the latter measures about two feet high--and the foot of the cross morticed into a base of Canadian stone Thus the present Canadian and the ancient English Church are, as it were, pleasantly connected. Both bowl and cross are of grey Cornish granite. The basin scooped out within the bowl is not cut on the sweep, but is chiselled perfectly square down. The bowl measures only some fourteen inches in diameter. The cross, so far as it goes in its fragmentary state, is a most perfect specimen of a Tau Cross. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park Exeter." Cox (1912) reports a modern font in Penkevil. The baptismal font now [2005] in this church dates probably from the major rebuilding of the church in the 19th century. The font consists of an octagonal basin, the panels of the sides decorated alternatively with Gothic windows and decorative patterns; the stem of the base is formed by a cluster of columns with moulded bases, while the lower base is octagonal with upper indents; it is raised on an octagonal plinth with 'priests' stone'.