Lydlinch / Lidlinch

Noted in the 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 c1861-1874): "The font is square with the angles chiselled off so as to form a kind of octagon. It is rudely ornamented with shallow incised niches, and rests on a round central shaft and four round pillars at the courners." Noted in Long (1923) as a baptismal font of the Norman period mounted on a five-support base. Mee (1939) writes: "The font, rudely chiselled from a square block, and decorated with arches, has been here about 600 years". In Newman & Pevsner (1972): " Font. C12; retooled." The Dorset Historic Churches Trust [http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk/lydlinch.htm] notes: "the 12C font, under the gallery, is fashioned from a square block decorated with arches." [NB: the term 'fashioned' could not be more appropriately used, as this is yet another square font that succumbed to the octagonal design at some point in its past: the basin was originally square, with four flatly carved round arches on each side; it is raised on a broad central shaft and four slender outer colonnettes, and a square lower base. Square plinth; round wooden cover, both appear modern.