Bramber

Harrison (1920) notes the old church as Norman, but mentions no font here. The Victoria County History (Sussex, vol. 6, pt. 1, 1980) notes that a collegial church was built at Bramber in 1073 but the French abbey that held the Steyning parish, Fécamp, refuse to grant it parochial rights, so it continued to operate as a chapel until "c. 1250 at least it had become a parish church with its own rector. [...] The tower and nave, with some crudely carved capitals, survive from the building built by William de Braose for his college of canons c. 1073, and formed part of a small cruciform building which had only a semicircular apse east of the tower. [...] The font is apparently of the late 18th century or early 19th." A local source, John Allen [www.sussexparishchurches.org/content/view/343/33/] [accessed 23 October 2012], however, notes: "Font: Round bowl on a roll-moulded base. Though renewed, it may be C13 in origin." The Ecclesiologist (No. XIV., XV - October, 1842: 31) informs: "In the [...] parish of Bramber, a handsome stone Font having been recently placed in the church, by order of the Archdeacon, instead of "an elegant modern vase of composition," which had been hitherto used as such, the latter became not only disused, but also (by common consequence) desecrated, being now used, or intended to be used, as the stand for a sun dial in the Rector's garden". It appears, therefore, that the font may be modern (if this is the same font both sources are referring to, as there is no description in the Ecclesiologist text]. [NB: we have no information on the font of the original collegiate church here].