Bradwell-juxta-Mare / Bradwell-on-Sea

Noted with an illustration in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: [...] octagonal bowl with moulded under-edge and four large heads, one of a priest and one with a bandeau, projecting from alternate faces and formerly with a shaft beneath each, round stem, 14th-century." In Pevsner (1976) and Bettley & Pevsner (2007): "Font. C14, octagonal bowl, with four big ugly heads reaching up from the stem, as if their shoulders carried the bowl." The Parish website [http://bradwell-on-sea.org/church.htm] [accessed 15 June 2010] notes about some past events related to the font: "A curious story surrounds the first Revd Owen and the present Font. It seems that the Font was removed from the Church in 1865 and buried at the North-east corner of the Churchyard by order of the then Rector and Churchwardens. (Perhaps they didn’t like the faces.) But later in the records is the entry ‘The beautiful and interesting old Font was dug up and restored by me, Edward Owen, Rector of Bradwell-on-Sea. It was placed in its right position.’ The new Font was presented to the neighbouring Parish Church of St Lawrence Newland where it can be seen to this day." This same source also reports changes made to the interior ca. 2000: " Inside the Church a sympathetic and extensive re-ordering was carried out as a Millennium Project. The Font was moved from the old Baptistery at the West End of the building and was re-sited in the South side of the Nave in front of the East Gable." [NB: we have no information on the font(s) -if any- at St-Peter-in-the-Wall church, the earlier chapel probably built by Bishop Cedd c. 654 at Ithancester, according to RCHM (ibid.), et al.]