Winterbourne Bassett

Described and illustrated in Buck (1951): "The sides of this circular tub bowl are convex and carved with stiff-leaved foliage springing upwards from a round moulding, below which the sides taper slightly downwards to a moulded base. The two-tier plinth on which the font is raised is modern." Betjeman (1958) notes: "Late Norman font with 17th-century cover". Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. E[arly] E[nglish]. Circular. With large stiff-leaf sprays and smaller single upright leaves between." In the Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 12, 1983): "early 13th-century font […] Most of the fittings in the nave, including the pews, pulpit, and font cover, are of the 17th century." The tub-shaped font is decorated with large palm-like plants and other leaf motifs between two thin mouldings on the bulging upper side of the basin. The wooden cover has an octagonal box-like octagonal base, on which are four S-shaped ribs around a centre pivot; ball finial; it is rather ungainly for a Jacobean cover.