Iffley No. 2 / Ifley / Ifly / Yeoffley / Gistelei / Givetelei / Gyftelai

A short guide to St. Mary's [s.d.] notes: "In the Churchyard is a much-weathered, octagonal Font-bowl of unknown date and origin." Lambert (1945), however, notes its origins: "Lying in the churchyard at Iffley is the octagonal fifteenth century bowl of the font from Sandford, superseded by a neo-Norman effort in 1846. The octagonal plinth on which it stood lay for many years on the grass verge of the roadside at Radley Great Wood on the other side of the Thames. How it got there is unknown; it was removed some ten years ago to the new cemetery at Radley, where it now is." The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 5, 1957) notes: "There is also a bowl of a font, said to be from Sandford" [NB: this VCH text is footnoted: "E. A. Greening Lamborn, N. & Q. clxxxviii (21 April 1945), 161."]. On-site notes: octagonal basin of plain vertical sides, now [November 2006] used as garden decoration outside the western entrance of the church; much worn and damaged upper rim; surfaces covered in lichens. The 'Sanford' noted in Lambert [cf. supra] is probably Sandford-on-Thames, a village which lies just a mile or so downriver from Iffley [NB: the river Thames, at the level of Iffley village and the Iffley locks, is called the Isis]. [cf. Index entry for Sandford-on-Thames]