Corston nr. Bath

There is a 1790 ink drawing of this font by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794) in the British Library collections [Shelfmark: Additional MS 15547 - Item number: f.18]. The font in Grimm's drawing consists of a smallish octagonal basin with plain sides and a rounded underbowl, raised on a plain pedestal base and a splaying octagonal lower base. It has a cover on it, octagonal and flat, with a tallish turned finial. There is no mention of any font in Pevsner's entry for this church (1958). The present [February 2008] octagonal font] in the church is Victorian [NB: we do not have a date for the font illustrated in Grimm, but it appears to be of a later-than-medieval date, given the size of the basin in relation to its total volume; the fabric of the present building goes back to the 13th century, but a church is known to have existed in Corston since Norman times, as witnessed by the archway set later on the north door -- we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]