The 12th-century font is original to the church at Castlemartin. The scalloped design is identical to the font in Hinton Blewitt, Somerset, over 100 miles away. At this time, fonts were often shipped from quarries and workshops in Somerset to West Wales…

#thread #fontsonfriday

Often, fonts are the oldest surviving feature in a church. But even very old fonts may not be original to the building…

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Some have been there since even earlier times, like the Norman font at Manordeifi, Pembs. This is chamfered square-bowl font ornamented with quatrefoils is believed to date to the 12th century, but the earliest parts of the current church date to the 13th-14th century.

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Others are 'new' additions: the 12th-century font at Llantrisant, Anglesey is quite ancient, and looks like it has always been there... However, the original Romanesque font went missing when the church closed in the 1970s

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We brought the font you see there today to church when we took it into our care. It had been removed from a church in Buckinghamshire after it had been sold for a house.

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Some fonts may not have started out as fonts at all... At Llanbeulan, Anglesey, the oldest part of the church is tucked behind pews at the west end. It’s a hefty, rectangular font richly carved with arcades and chevrons. And was possibly carved as early as the 11th century.
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Some scholars believe the font was originally an altar and held relics. Perhaps even the bones of St Peulan, to whom the church is dedicated.. If this is so, Peter Lord wrote “as an altar of the pre-Norman period, it is a unique survivor in Wales, and, indeed, in Britain.”

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