Shrewton

Buck (1951) writes: "when [...] T. H. Wyatt [...] rebuilt Shrewton church [...] in 1855, he found a dilapidated Transitional Norman font which had not been used for nearly a century, it having been superseded in 1764 by a 'new Bason for Christenings' for which the churchwarden paid 3s. 6d. The bowl and stem of the old font were discarded by Wyatt and he had new parts made of similar size and shape and fixed on the original base [...] The pelleted arcade, instead of being supported on pillars, has in their places alternate designs of foliage; one design is similar to the 'palmette' ornament adapted from a Devonshire group of Norman fonts, and the other is very reminiscent of that on the underside of the original Norman font at Cholderton [...] which he had discarded five years previously". The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 15, 1995) notes: "There was a church at Shrewton in 1236. [...] In the early 13th century the church had a chancel and an aisled nave of two bays. The tower was added in the late 15th century [...] Registers of baptisms [...] survive from 1557." There is no mention of a font in the VCH entry for this parish. The British listed Buildings database [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-319846-church-of-st-mary-the-virgin-shrewton] [accessed 22 February 2012] reports a modern font as "especially good Romanesque-style font by Wyatt."