Salisbury No. 4 / Sarum

Dru Drury (1949) reports a 13th-century baptismal font made of Purbeck marble, the bowl panels "carved in shallow pointed double arcades [...] at St Edmunds, Salisbury." Descibed and illustrated in Buck (1951): "A development of the 'tabular' type; here the bowl is octagonal instead of square and has two trefoil-headed recessed panels on each side. The church was built originally in 1263-71, and the font dates from this time. This font, as well as that at St. Thomas's Church [...], was removed from the church in order to conform to the Presbiterian Directory of 1644-5. The entry in the Churchwardens' Accounts on 7th April, 1647, is quoted by Dr. J. Chas. Cox in his book on the subject as follows: 'It is ordered that Mr. Nicholas Beach doe take downe ye Font, wherein baptisme was formerly administered and ye place where it stood maid plaine with pavement stone and yt a frame for a font be forthwith sett up in a convenient place neare ye Minister's seat for ye administration of ye Sacrament'. It was restored to use in 1660 after the restoation of the monarchy." Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Octagonal of Purbeck marble, C13. On each side two flat blank pointed-trefoiled arches." A printed church guide of the 1960's notes the presence of "a much restored font" in the church. [NB: a January 2006 communication from a local source [BSI physical file] informs that the font is no longer in the church -- another local source informs that "it might have gome to Amesbury" -- cf. Index entry for Amesbury for a Norman font listed for that church, not the one Old St Edmund's]. Listed in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble.