Everdon / Great Everdon

Noted in Mee (1945) as a Norman font. Described in Pevsner & Cherry (1973): "Octagonal, C13, of Purbeck marble, of a familiar, often supplied type with two flat blank pointed arches to each side" [NB: the arches are round-headed]. Described and illustrated in the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (2008): "The bowl is octagonal and of Sussex marble, carved in low relief with plain round-headed arcading, two bays per face. The lower rim is hollow chamfered. It is supported on one cylindrical central shaft and eight slimmer shafts at the angle. These stand on a worn, chamfered octagonal base; and this on a modern step. The interior of the bowl is circular and lead-lined". The CRSBI adds: "Pevsner describes the font as Purbeck and 13thc. The date might well be correct, but it follows a 12thc. form, commonest in Sussex but extremely widespread, and is likely to have been imported to Northants." There is information on this font in http://martinjackson.co.uk/Documents/Everdon%20Church%20history%20_2_.pdf [accessed 6 April 2009]: "there was a church here by the early 13th century, for a rector was appointed in 1218 and the existing font dates from that period, but nothing remains of this building […] The most ancient item in the church is the font, dating from the early 13th century and made of Purbeck marble brought all the way from Dorset. It has an octagonal bowl and base; the stem and columns were renewed in the 19th century when a sympathetic wooden cover was added […] 2001 was […] the year that the font was repaired."