Margam Abbey No. 1 / Mair Gwm

The present baptismal font of this church is modern, probably of the Victorian period; it consists of a cylindrical basin with nail-head and foliage decoration on the sides; the underbowl has trumpet-scallop pattern and a centre ring moulding; the cylindrical stem is plain, of a reddish stone or marble; the lower base is a broad mouldings with spurs (?) at 90-degree angles; on a two (?) step plinth. The wooden cover has a flat round base with three or four vertical scroll ribs; appears modern. The Margam Country Park web site [www.margamcountrypark.co.uk/default.aspx?page=1369#disappeared_font] [accessed 27 November 2011] notes: "The font at the Abbey is recorded as being of Mumbles Marble, and is illustrated in the story of Margam Abbey however recent examination reveals that the top and base are of two distinct and different rock types and it is considered more likely that the fawn-coloured top is of a coarse crinoidal limestone, from Denbyshire, and the base, reddish in colour, is very different and is possibly of Cork Red Marble from Ireland, very popular from the 1830s until the 1920s, and commonly known as Victorian Marble. Major restoration works were undertaken at the church between 1872 –73 and there is reference to the replacement with a ‘fine crinoidal limestone’ of that installed during the restoration of 1805-09…….this raises the question as to what became of the original font made of Mumbles Marble – was it given to another church in the area? [...] Mumbles, also known as Swansea or Cambrian Marble is a marble in the commercial sense being a limestone capable of taking a polish to produce an attractive appearance." Madeleine Gray (e-mail of 12 September 2013 to BSI) reports three disused fonts now kept in the former abbey. [NB: we have not been able to identify any of the three as the original font of the abbey church, but two of them might possibly be it]. One of three stone basins now kept in the abbey's stone museum. This one consists of a large fragment that includes the underbowl and about half of the basin side; the basin is round, tapering in towards the bottom, and appears totally plain; there is a central drain in the inner well. If the type of stone matched, this could be a good cantidate for identification as the abbeys' old font.