Gissing

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, and in 1209 was a rectory [...] William of South Elmham, the first vicar, was succeeded in 1307, prid. kal. Sept. by Will. Ingereth, of Debenham, priest, who resigned it for Fersfield." There is no mention of a font in Blomefield's entry for this church. Noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1999) as an octagonal font of the 15th century. Noted and illustrated in Knott (2006): " the font, which has blank sides between columned corners. Was it unfinished? Or was it originally painted? Or, even more interestingly, could it be that the reliefs have been cemented over? The deep niches on the stem must once have held statues; but they are now empty, and offer no answers." The font does not appear to have had any original carving on the sides, between the protruding colonnettes at the angles of the basin; the blank sides seem to flow naturally onto the plain curved underbowl; it is as if the balnk surfaces might have been intended to be painted rather than carved; there are eight pinnacled and crocketted niches on the stem, but, again, perhaps intended to be painted. The font is raised on an octagonal plinth. The wooden cover is flat, octagonal and plain, and it appears modern.