West end of nave

Although there are early accounts of an 'ancient font' at Bradbourne, it is unclear whether they refer to this particular monument (Glover and Noble 1829, 133; Glover 1833, 133; Cox 1877a, 433). It is first identifiably mentioned by Cox (1903a, 103), who records it standing in the garden of Bradbourne Hall, describing it as decorated with an arcade carved in low relief. Whether it had been moved there from the church, as might be suggested from the earlier nineteenth-century references, is unclear, but it seems to have been placed in the church by 1905 (Le Blanc Smith 1905a, 55–6).

All Saints

Roughly circular, cut from a single block of stone, in good condition, although cut back to accommodate church pier next to which it stands, and possibly cut (at an angle) across the top

Decorated around its circumference in relatively low relief with a series of single stepped-base columns standing on a wide flat band that encircles the base. On the left where the side of the font is at its maximum depth, two of the columns appear to support arches, having squared capitals or imposts, suggesting the scheme originally formed an arcade. The niches between the columns are plain and well-dressed, showing no signs of having been carved.

Appendix A item (stones dating from Saxo-Norman overlap period or of uncertain date)

The decoration of this font preserves eleven columns intact and the remains of a twelfth. The inter-columnation between these is a regular 12–14 cm (4.7–5.5 in), with the space between the eleventh and the remains of the twelfth being 8 cm (3.1 in). This implies that in the area that has been cut back, there were at least two further columns (at 12–14 cm apart), giving a total of thirteen niches. This means that, although its overall dimensions and the design of the arcading, with its squared imposts and bases, are closely paralleled by Eyam 2 (see below, Ill. 466), it may have been designed to carry a different set of notional symbolic references: to Christ and the twelve apostles, while that of Eyam was associated with the notions of death and rebirth more traditionally expressed in baptismal contexts. It is, however, uncertain that any figures ever existed in carved form on Bradbourne 6, given the dressed nature of the niches formed by the arcade (which is also the case with Eyam 2).

While early commentators regarded the ‘ancient font’ at Bradbourne as being of pre-Conquest date, such attributions are often confused and unsupported, and given the absence of any fonts clearly dated to this period, whether decorated with arcades or not, there is little to compare it with. Nevertheless, the font at Hognaston, less than two miles from Bradbourne, is also decorated with an arcade supported on squared imposts. These imposts, however, and the bases of the (ten) columns forming the arcade, are not contiguous with the columns, as is the case at Bradbourne and Eyam, while overall the Hognaston font is much smaller, being only 37 cm (14.5 in) high and 200 cm (78.7 in) in its circumference, and its relief carving is much deeper. While the common use of arcading to decorate these fonts might suggest that those at Bradbourne and Eyam represent contemporary versions of that at Hognaston (or vice versa), it is interesting to note, given the very local nature of this cluster of monuments, that they have been produced under notably different influences, in terms of the design of the arcade, the dimensions of the monuments, and cutting techniques.

Uncertain

Cox 1903a, 103; Le Blanc Smith 1905a, 55–6; Tudor 1929, 102