The Font in St Mary's

Whaddon's font is entered in the BAPTISTERIA SACRA INDEX [www.library.utoronto.ca/bsi], included with permission:

WHADDON, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Parish Church of St. Mary

Location: off (E) the A1198, 4 km N of Royston, 18 km SSW of Cambridge

Date: 15^th century

Style: Perpendicular

Physical notes: stone; octagonal basin mounted on pedestal base – round inner basin well, lined with lead – central drain

General notes: Listed in Cox & Harvey (English Church Furniture, London 1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Noted in Pevsner (The buildings of England, 1970): "Font. Octagonal, Perp[endicular], with blank arches on the stem and pointed quatrefoil panels on the bowl. Only one of them, that pointing E, has a shield. It contains the arms of the d'Eschallers family" [NB: perhaps the 'Scales' family? (descendants of Hardwinus de Scalariis?) -- cf. 'Cambridgeshire', LoveToKnow 1911 Online Encyclopedia. © 2003, 2004 LoveToKnow -- http://64.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CA/CAMBRIDGESHIRE.htm)]. Noted in the Cambridgeshire Churches (2004): "at the end of the north aisle, there is a contemporary [i.e., Perpendicular] font. Like the other 15th century work here, it is relatively plain: the only decoration is sober panelling on the shaft and seven faces of the bowl. The eighth, which faces east, has a carving of the shield of the d'Eschallers family, who were lords of the manor here between the Norman Conquest and the 15th century". [We are grateful to Ben Colburn and Mark Ynys-Mon, of Cambridgeshire Churches, for their information on this font, and for the photographs of the church]. The Whaddon Church guide [http://whaddon.org/church/church_guide.html] [accessed 19 December 2007] notes: "The font, by the north door, is octagonal in shape and bears the arms of the de Scalers on the eastern face. It would appear to have been without a cover at some time as in a visitation in 1685 it was reported: 'At Whaddon the font wants Cover and Plugge' " [NB: there may have existed an earlier font in the 13th-century original church]. [We are grateful to Nigel Strudwick, of Whaddon, Cambs., for his photographs of this font].

Symbols and motifs: seven sides of the basin have quatrefoil panels, but the east side is decorated with a shield charged with the arms of the D'Eschallers family ['Scales'? / 'Scalariis'? / Descalers?] [see General notes] – the pedestal base is decorated with trefoiled windows on the sides -- Images courtesy & copyright © Nigel Strudwick, 2007]

The above is a representative summary of the catalogue entry for this font in BAPTISTERIA SACRA INDEX [www.library.utoronto.ca/bsi]