Hargrave nr. Raunds No. 1 / Hardegrave / Hartgras / Hartgrave

Described in Parker (1849) as a "rude and ungainly" baptismal font decorated with heads on two sides of the octagonal basin, and located in the nave, near the north door; "apparently of the date of the church" [Early English]. Noted in Mee (1945): "the base of the font [...] is older than Christianity in England, for it is a Roman altar stone". The Victoria County History (Northampton, vol. 4, 1937) notes: "With the exception of the transept the structure, where not rebuilt, belongs to the first half of the 13th century, but new windows were inserted in the aisles and chancel during the 14th and 15th centuries. [...] The early-13th-century font consists of a plain octagonal bowl slightly chamfered at the top, with carved heads on two of its faces. It stands on a plain square stone pillar, […] chamfered at the angles, and with chamfered plinth, which is apparently no part of the original font"; the measuments are added in a footnote: "The pillar is 3 ft. 5 in. in height including the plinth, and 20½ in. square. Height from floor to top of bowl 4 ft. 9 in." [NB: the pillar is over 100 cm and therefore probably too tall for the stem of a font, as most fonts are about that total height; with the basin and plinth included the total height of the font falls out of the functional]. [cf. Index for Hargrave No. 2 for another font listed for this church]