Cheltenham

Although the Church of St. Mary with St. Matthew goes back to the Middle Ages, the baptismal font is a 19th-century (?) replacement; it consists of an octagonal basin with carved foiled panels on the sides, an underbowl chamfer decorated with floral (?) motifs, and an octagonal pedestal base with panels that have a variety of motifs inside trefoil-headed niches; the lower base is moulded. Octagonal wooden cover, flat, with metal decoration and ring handle [NB: we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church which goes back to Saxon times]. Other churches in Cheltenham have fonts noted in Verey & Brooks (ibid.): All Saints' (of ca, 1865 by John Middleton); St. Christopher's (ca. 1876, but may have been originally at St. James'); St. Mark's (ca. 1860); St. Matthew's (also by John Middleton); St. Michael's (19C, hexagonal, by E. M. Dinkel); St. Paul's (19C, circular); St. Peter's (square, neo-Norman); St. Philip & St. James' (of 1882);