Woodham Walter / Wudeham

Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: octagonal bowl, alternate sides with quatrefoiled circle enclosing a blank shield, and two panels with cinquefoiled heads, stem with cinquefoil-headed panels, probably 15th-century, base modern." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Large, octagonal, Perp[endicular], the stem decorated with tracery, the bowl with quatrefoils." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add: "From the old church". The Parish web site [www.stmichaelsww.org.uk] [accessed 28 September 2010] notes: "The church of St. Michael the Archangel was built here in 1563. It is the sole Elizabethan church in Essex and one of only six built in England during Elizabeth's reign. It is not however, the first church to be consecrated in Woodham Walter but the site of its predecessor cannot be exactly determined [...] The font certainly came from the old church. It is of the Perpendicular period and the noted architect and church historian, Fred Chancellor, dated it as not later than 1400. Its cover, with the elaborate pulley mechanism to raise and lower it, was probably put over it in Victorian times."