Foxholes

Noted in Bulmer's Directory of 1892 as a font "of Caen stone, richly carved", dating, like the new building that replaced the earlier church, to circa 1866. This baptismal font is a Victorian rendering of a traditional Norman table-top type of font: the square basin has a chamfered upper rim decorated with saw-tooth motif, a band of geometric interlace on the sides, and rosettes inscribed in circles on the lower basin sides, in the roundels corresponding to the 'ribs' that decorate the underbowl; cylindrical stem decorated with a diaper pattern, a plain roll moulding at each end of the stem, plus a round moulding with large leaf motif at 90-degree angles; square lower base, the bottom volume with a chamfer decorated with saw-tooth and scale motifs, overdone as per Victorian tastes. Square wooden font cover with heavy metal ornamentation, with pulley system. [NB: the GENUKI entry for this church [www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/CBW/ERY/Foxholes.html] notes that the Parish Registers for St Mary's record baptisms since 1654, and the National Gazetteer of 1868 describes the church as "an ancient structure of stone" [cf. Bulmer's entry supra], therefore an earlier font (or fonts) must have existed in this church -- we have no information on those earlier font(s)].