Linton nr. Maidstone / Lyllyngton

A local guide for use in the Church of St. Nicholas [available also as http://www.lintonpc.kentparishes.gov.uk/userfiles/File/Linton_Church_History.pdf [accessed 13 January 2008]] informs: "There is a story that a previous font was once a water trough and had stood for many years by the side of the raised path leading from the street to the church gate. An old dame kept it full of water for the comfort of dogs and even passing cattle and horses. No one knows what became of it." Of the current font the guide further informs: ""The font was moved here [to a chapel in the north aisle] from its position just inside the west door, (to where it has now been removed again) and the Victorian cover, which needed a pulley to move it, was replaced by the present one, in memory of Rev Yeo ['Rev J L Yeo, Vicar of St Nicholas from 1946 until his death in 1963']. The Baptistry was completed in 1966." There are drawings of the later font by Thomas Fisher, probably done ca. 1800, entered in the Catalogue of Drawings & Museum Objects of the Society of Antiquaries of London [http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/specColl/SoA_images/detail.cfm?object=1454] and [...1455] [accessed 13 January 2008]; these show an octagonal font of traditional design [perhaps late-medieval?], and are obviously not of the Norman font, but nor is it Victorian, as the drawings are believed to have been done in the late 18th or very early 19th century [NB: some of Thomas Fisher's font drawings are dated 1802].