East Grafton

The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of July 1844: 19-21) reports the consecration on 11 April 1844 of the new church at East Grafton and describes the new font in it: "The font is placed near the west door, and is copied, in Painswick stone [i.e., an oolitic limestone] of very fine grain, from an original Norman example now remaining at Welford church in Berkshire. It is, in plan, circular, and on a projecting base rise seventeen three-quarter shafts, the capitals of which are connected together by intersecting arches of deeply-cut mouldings; over these is a lip-moulding running around the upper edge of the font. The basin is capacious, and lined with thick lead, on the margin of which the following sentence is circumscribed in raised Norman letters, '+SECUNDUM MISERICORDIAM SUAM SALVOS NOS FECIT PER LAVACRUM REGENERATIONIS ET RENOVATIONIS SPIRITUS SANCTI'. The cover is flat, with an ornamental scroll in iron diverging at right angles from a Norman cross in the centre." The Victgoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 16, 1999) notes: "At East Grafton a chapel was standing in 1302, when St. Mary was invoked in it [...] The church of St. Nicholas was built at East Grafton, and a district was assigned to it, in 1844." No font is mentioned in the VCH entry for either building.