Little Baddow No. 1

An anonymous and undated pamphlet entitled 'A brief description of the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Little Baddow', reports: "The very primitive Norman Font outside the Church by the west door, was found in a garden in Boreham parish, about a mile away. The present Font in Little Baddow Church was placed there in 1858, and there is no record to show how the previous one was disposed of. It is uncertain therefore, whether this Norman Font came originally from Boreham (where there is an Early English Font) or from our parish Church. Probability, however, is on the side of the latter, as, if the Early English Font replaced it in Boreham, it would have had to have survived six hundred years of neglect." This same source informs that the font cover is the work of a local parishioner responsible for the processional cross and the list of rectors on the wall." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) note the 1858 octagonal font, as well as a "large circular trough with four handles, probably a mortar for mixing lead, resting on a mill-wheel." [NB: we have not been able to ascertain whether or not the 'old font' is the same object described in Bettley & Pevsner [cf. supra] as a mortar]