Little Houghton / Hocthone / Hoctune / Hohtone / Houghtone / Houghton Parva / Houghton Minor / Houthun / Houton

The Victoria County History (Northampton, vol. 4, 1937) notes: "Payn de Houghton presented to the church [...] before 1161, and the advowson was shared by his daughters [...] The south doorway, however, though much restored, is of 13thcentury date, as is the greater part of the tower. [...] The font has an early-13th-century circular bowl on an octagonal shaft and four legs, on a circular plinth and step. The bowl is ornamented with a species of straight-topped 'arcading'." In Pevsner & Cherry (1973): "Circular, with flat shafts carrying rough single-scallop capitals. Is it Norman or an imitation?" Described and illustrated by Ron Baxter in the CRSBI (2008) as a baptismal font "of an oolitic Northamptonshire limestone". Baxter's commentary is very interesting and relevant to the survival of the font: "The font is more problematic, but for different reasons. It seems likely that the insert at the rim has exacerbated the cracking of the bowl, and that its own weight falling away to the S is opening the main crack further. The other repairs carried out over the years have made matters worse by increasing the weight of the bowl, and by imposing strains which can only be accommodated by cracking of the stone. This state of affairs is analysed in Beesley (2003). The suggested solution is to remove the filling material within, and to fix a lead lining onto a lightweight collar centrally place, which will transmit its weight straight down onto the central shaft. This lining would be sealed at the rim with a flexible material (acid-free plastazote foam), which will allow expansion and contraction. Pevsner wondered whether the font was Norman, or an imitation. The present author supposes that it is a 12thc. Piece that has had a good deal of work done on it, including the removal of a lower rim and drastic surface cleaning. This might well have contributed to the present instability by reducing the thickness of the walls."