Nuthall

The Nottinghamshire History website [http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/doubleday/nuthall1.htm] [accessed 9 December 2009] notes: "The presence of an early Norman font seems almost to hint that the Saxon church of timber gave way to one of stone soon after the Conquest, but nothing is known of any such structure, and the oldest existing masonry is the base of the tower dating from about 1200." Pevsner & Williamson (1979) note also the early tower: "Low, squat C13", but do not mention a font in the church. The Southwell Churches website [http://southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk/nuthall/hhistory.php] [accessed 9 December 2009] reports a faculty report of 1884 in which includes the provision of a new font, and adds: "The present font was installed in 1887. (It has been thought that the replaced font may have been an original Norman font.) […] The font is octagonal and of marble and oolitic limestone (possibly Ancaster hard white), with heavy wooden cover. Inscribed on four sides: 'TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN THE MEMORY OF JOHN HOUGHTON OF HEMPSHILL. DIED UG.5TH 1886 OF ANNE HIS WIFE. DIED MAY 7TH 1882 AND OF HARRIET THEIR DAUGHTER. DIED SEPT. 2ND 1884, THIS FONT IS DEDICATED AD 1887. ' (There is great speculation about the previous font/fonts. Stretton (1819) describes the font as “modern”; Glynne (1859) also says that the font is modern. One account from 1890 says “the old font was replaced by a shallow basin on a shapeless pedestal” and “A handsome new font has been recently erected and the old one finds an unhonoured place in the churchyard.” (Mansfield Advertiser) The rector at the time, the Rev H Holden, has crossed this out and added to the newspaper article in his own handwriting “not true”. On this evidence the font replaced in 1887 would not have been of great age, certainly not “the ancient Norman font” as written about by Turton, and in Doubleday’s following imaginative [1944] account “an early Norman font seems almost to hint that the Saxon church of timber gave way to one of stone soon after the Conquest”. It is known that the pre-1887 font was given to the church of St Michael and All Angels at Sutton in Ashfield. It is hoped that this font, be it ancient or modern, can be restored to St Patrick’s Church. Just to compound matters a font can be seen in a pre-1887 photograph of St Patrick’s church interior.)" [NB: Lindley (1907), however, indicates that the old font at Sutton-in-Ashfield is the earlier one from its own church]. The Southwell Churches website [http://southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk/nuthall/pint1885.jpg] [accessed 9 December 2009] displays a B&W photograph that claims to show the interior of the church in 1885, and has a hemispherical mounted font towards the back of the nave; that font does not seem to match the description of the original Norman one; the same source has a recent photograph of the west end of the nave showing the 19th-century octagonal font.