Barking / Berecingas

Noted with an illustration in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font and cover: [...] In outer N. aisle--stone stem carved with scrolls, etc. Bowl of same font now at Creeksmouth church, octagonal and moulded with three carved cartouches and foliage ornament; ogee-shaped oak cover surmounted by dove, early 17th-century." The Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 5, 1966) notes: "The buildings of Barking Abbey lay north-west of the parish church. [...] The abbey church and cloister were demolished in 1541–2. [...] The architecture of the parish church of St. Margaret, described below, suggests that it was built in or before the 13th century. It is said to have been at first a chapel, and to have been made a parish church about 1300 by abbess Anne de Vere. [...] St. Margaret's stood within the abbey precincts, and even after the 13th century was to some extent controlled by the abbey [...] The elaborately-carved stone font in the south aisle dates from about 1635. [...] Its wooden cover was made in 1842 by W. G. Rogers. [...] About 1870 a new Gothic-style font was installed. The old font was subsequently used in the mission church at Creek-mouth, and in the church of The Ascension at Eastbury, but in 1928 it was restored to St. Margaret's, and the Gothic font was 'decently interred in a vault'." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Bowl on baluster stem, with ornate scrolly ornament, just going gristly, i.e. c.1635" [there is no indication in Pevsner that the basin is not in Barking St. Margaret's, which means it must have been returned to this church between the time of the RCHM visit, ca. 1916) and the visit by Pevsner]. The font is illustrated inside the church at Barking in the Essex Churches website [www.essexchurches.info] ca. 2008. [NB: the church dates from the early 13th century, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church].