Waldron

Walker (1908) reports a basin of a font, recently discovered in a nearby farm, with traces of the lead lining on it. Harrison (1920) reports an "old font" in the church that dates to the Early English period. Mee (1964) dates to Saxon times and compares it to those at Bignor and Selham. Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008), which cites both Walker and Mee, and adds: "he broad, shallow proportions of this basin are unusual for a Norman font." The Sussex Parish Churches site [www.sussexparishchurches.org/content/view/304/34/] [accessed 6 February 2013] reports two fonts [cf. infra] in this church: the modern is a "C19 square bowl with corner-shafts, said to be a copy of one found in fragments at the restoration"; on the second 'font', the web site remarks: "(Outside north aisle) Tub-font, found c1906 at a local farm in use as a cattle-trough [...]. Its proportions are shallower than most in the C11 and C12 when such fonts were common and there is no certainty that it was a font, let alone from this church. What may be the remnants of inset lead letters have been discerned", and refers to Walker [cf. supra]. The local Star Inn site [www.starinn-waldron.co.uk/about-waldron-links/] [accessed 6 February 2013] notes: "History shows that the village was visited by Cromwell's troops in the mid 1600's and it is said that the troops rolled the font down the nearby hill. This font has been restored to the church and is said to be one of the three great round Saxon fonts in Sussex." The basin appears round and of crude irregular workmanship, rounded underbowl outside and a flat inner well bottom provided with an enlarged drain hole in the centre and a cut in the rim that was probably made by the farmers to use as it a trough, a common happening to fonts that ended up used as farm implements.