Herefordshire’s Norman Fonts

In every Christian church you go to there will be a font of some sort. Some of the more modern churches practice full submersion for Baptisms or Christenings.  The practice of full submersion is actually a medieval practice to emulate how Jesus was fully submerged when he was baptised by John the Baptist.

Nowadays, as adults have a freer choice of their religion, they experience either a font or submersion baptism in higher numbers. However, in medieval times it would be a infant or young child who was baptised as soon after birth as possible. The parents would have worried that the child might die before they could have them baptised due to high infant mortality rates. The death of the child without baptism would mean they wouldn’t be allowed to be buried inside a church yard and would still be tainted with original sin. This was believed to be a path to purgatory with the inability to reach heaven or even hell. For medieval parents this was to be avoided as much as possible.

Often in the Norman Period there would be all kinds of decorations on a font and below as some of my favourite examples.

A winged horse – Castle Frome

Angels – Castle Frome

The baptism of Jesus – Castle Frome

Another angel – Castle Frome

Two men fighting – Eardisley

A lion – Eardisley

Adam being saved from damnation – Eardisley

A saintly figure – Eardisley

The Twelve Apostles and four lions – Hereford

Hereford has a spectacular font with depictions of the Twelve Apostles. There are also four lions guarding the base. If you visit this font and take a close look, you can see metal clasps which secured the Holy Water.

A simplistic but decorative design – Bromyard

Possibly a tree of life – Bromyard

Not Strawberry Gothic – Shobdon

Only bits of the Norman Church remain at Shobdon and the font is one of those features. It was thrown out into the great outdoors when it didn’t fit in with the theme of Strawberry Gothic.

You can read about Shobdon in two weeks time.