Linch / Lince / Lynche

Harrison (1920) reports a church re-built in 1705 and restored in 1886, but mentions no font in it. The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 4, 1953) notes: "The medieval parish of Linch consisted of two parts: the main settlement was round the church, whose site is now marked by Linch Farm [...] The ancient parish church, which is mentioned in Domesday Book, [...] stood in the present stackyard of Linch Farm, now in Bepton parish, west of the farm-house. No trace of it remains above ground [...] At some uncertain date a chapel-of-ease was built at Woodman's Green, in the Wealden outlier of the parish; it may, perhaps, have been this which was served by the 'perpetual chaplain' who occurs in a Visitation of 1521, [...] and by the clerk instituted to the rectory in 1524–5. [...] In 1551 'the former church of Lynche, having no parishioners, is ruined and desecrated'. [...] Speed's map of 1610 marks 'St. Luke's chapel' at Woodman's Green, but this also became ruinous before 1635, and was only rebuilt in 1700. [...] The present church of ST. LUKE consists of chancel with south organ chamber and vestry, and nave with south porch; of which the nave represents the building of 1700 and the remainder 19th-century additions. [...] The font and other fittings are modern." The modern font at St. Luke's consists of a round basin decorated with a broad scotia all arround, raised on a cluster of four columns with moulded capitals and bases, and a quatrefoil-shaped lower base; on a quadrangular plinth. The wooden cover is round, flat and plain, also modern. [NB: we have no information on the medieval font of the disappeared church here].