Broad Hinton

The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine (vol. XIX (1881): 20) reports on an excursion to Broad Hinton [inter alia] by the members of the Society in which they visit the church and note "the Norman font". Noted in Buck (1951) as a group of octagonal baptismal fonts with simple plain mouldings and dating from the late 12th or early 13th century in the county of Wiltshire, at Alderton, Blunsdon St. Andrew, Broad Hinton, Collingbourne Kingston, Corston, Fonthill Bishop, Idmiston, Lydiard Tregoze, Marden and Melksham. The Victoria County Council (Wiltshire, vol. 12, 1983) notes that the church was called 'St. Mary's' in the 13th century, but by the 19th century it changed its name to 'St. Peter's'. The baptismal font consits of an octagonal basin with pronouncedly tapering sides, really an inverted truncated pyramid, with a moulding at the upper rim and a skirt-like moulding around the lower side; all the surfaces of the basin are brightly painted, reds and greens being the predominant colours; the side panels are decorated with a geometric frame that inscribes the symbols of the four Evangelists alternating with floral symbols all around; the cylindrical stem is also painted with floral and/or foliage motifs all around; the broader lower base is also round and painted as well; it has a band of green-painted geometric motifs on the upper moulding, the rest chiefly bright red. The flat wooden cover is octagonal and appears modern. The actual font, with traces of the old hardware from the old cover on the upper rim, is probably late medieval; it is not clear whether the painted motifs have been executed on the original decoration of the font or they are wholy a later addition; the paintings on the font may have been part of the 1879 restoration of the church by Gothic Revival architect Charles Edwin Ponting (1850-1932), of Marlborough. The font is no doubt a good example of what many medieval fonts would have looked like originally.