Roby nr. Huyton / Rabil

There is an entry for Roby [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SJ4391/roby/] [accessed 28 February 2019] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Ellis (1902) notes: "In the churchyard of Roby stands an old font, now in use as a flower pot, that according to parish clerk of Huyton, was originally taken to Roby frm the parish church at Prescot. The bowl is circular, of local red sandstone, shallow in proportion to its diameter, but without the slightest attempt at ornament, and it stands on an equally plain cylindrical support without any distinct base. [...] This font appears to be early in character, probably twelfth century, and it may possibly once have been sculptured, for it bears the appearance of having been smoothed with a chisel during comparatevily recent times. A church existed at Prescot in the thirteenth century, and probably this is the font of that church." [cf. infra]. The Victoria County History (Lancashire, 1907) entry for Roby notes: "There are the remains of an ancient stone cross by the road from Liverpool to Prescot [...] There is an old font in the churchyard", and gives "Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xvii, 72". The same source, in the entry for Huyton, has: "In the east part of the churchyard [Huyton St Michael's] is what may be a third font, quite plain, with a hole in one side, which is probably the ground for a tradition that it was formerly used for grinding corn" [source: www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=41313 [accessed 11 September 2006]]. The web site for Prescot Church [http://prescotchurch.merseyworld.com] offers a recent update on this object as well as a recent image of it: "The font stands in the 'baptistery', near the entrance of the church [...] The present font was found in Roby churchyard [cf. VCH above] in the last century, and is thought to have been Prescot's early font, lost at the reformation. In 1935 the font was rescued by Canon Mitchell's daughters. They had it restored and returned back to Prescot Church in his memory (Canon Mitchell was Vicar at Preston from 1887-1919). Formed of a large sandstone block, the primitive and deep font bowl is lined with lead. The Civic Trust calls it 'Anglo-Saxon'. It now has a 17th century carved wooden cover." [NB: the question still remains [cf. VCH supra], whether or not this object was originally a baptismal font basin, or just another mortar or corn mill -- the side drain, though not determining, is rather suspicious]. Noted in Pollard & Pevsner (2006) as a "strikingly simple" Norman font that was at Roby from 1755 vto 1936.