Tremain / Tremaen / Tremayn (Cered.)

The entry for this church in Meyrick (1808) reports: "The font is a very large square bason." The entry for this church in Evans (1914) notes: "The ancient square Font resembles that at Mount and contains an earthenware Bason." Noted in Tyrrell-Green (1928) on a list of mostly Welsh fonts consisting of a square basin decorated with scallop motif (includes one from Bristol St Philip's and another from Thornbury, Gloucs., both bordering with Wales). Listed in Thurlby (2006) as one of several "table-top fonts with scalloped undersides in Cardiganshire" [including: Llanfihangel Ystrad, Mynt, Penbryn, Sarnau, Tremain]; this particular one: "'almost identical' to the font in the adjoining parish at Mynt." Noted by Tim Palmer as one of three Ceredigion fonts decorated with 'scallop and dart' motif (the others at Penbryn and Llanfihangel Ystrad, although the latter has had the dart motif chiselled off. Described and illustrated in Palmer (2010): "It is a Romanesque design, rectangular in plan and with 3 or 4 scallops delineating the base of the bowl on each of the four sides. Each scallop is separated from its neighbour by a small dart [...], and a sharp horizontal line separates the scalloped area from the upper, plain sides of the bowl. This design is seen at several places close to the coast along the south coast of Wales, and also at Mwnt on the coast north-west of Cardigan. The same design is common in north Devon, and it has been suggested that there was a font factory in that part of the world that exported fonts across the Bristol Channel to Wales. [...] The Tremain font is made of a rough, medium sandstone containing greenish grains. It certainly doesn’t look like a local Welsh stone to my eye". The entry for this church in British Listed Buildings [https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300015871-church-of-st-michael-y-ferwig#.VoqxlU9_cnM] [accessed 21 January 2020] notes: "Square grey stone scalloped C13 font from the earlier church on thick cylindrical shaft and square stepped base similar to font at Church of the Holy Cross, Mwnt."