Kimmeridge

Mee (1939) writes of the church at Kimmeridge: "Here the men of King John's day [i.e., John, king of England, 1167-1216] put a new font, which was lost later and found in a hedge. We were glad to hear that it would be back in its proper place as soon as alterations to the church were complete." Not mentioned in Newman & Pevsner (1972). The Dorset Historic Churches Trust notes the adventures of the font [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk/kimmeridge.htm]: "The font is interesting because according to the excellent church guide, the present one was discarded by the architect as being 'extremely ugly and utterly unsuitable for its purpose' [NB: the church underwent a Victorian re-building in 1872]. About 1920, two workmen digging a ditch found it [i.e., the basin of the old font] in a hedge and mounted [it] on a new pedestal. As an act of supreme irony, the Victorian version is thought to have become a bird-bath!"