Bungay No. 2

Suckling (1846-1848) writes: "In the year 1160 [...] Roger de Glanville and the Countess Gundreda his wife [...] laid the foundations of a Benedictine Nunnery at Bungay; dedicating its church to Saint Mary, and the house to the honour of God and the Holy Cross. [...] The Church of St. Mary [w]as parochial, previous to the dissolution of the nunnery, as well as conventual [...] It is yet called 'Lady Church' by old inhabitants in the place. At the great fire in 1688 it suffered considerable damage; but the statement of the Brief that it was burnt to the ground is an exaggeration. The old benches, and possibly the font—for the present one is modern—might have been consumed". The present for consists of a roughly hemispherical basin decorated with deeply-carved human demi-figures and floral motifs on the sides, and a pattern of ribs around the underbowl; raised on a polygonal pedestal base ornamented with flute pattern. Knott (2002) gives a 18th-century date for the present font. The wooden cover is of two volumes: the lower one is an octagonal prism, the sides decorated with symbols inscribed in rhomboid panels; the upper volume is a tall octagonal pyramid.