151 



Wi)c Ancient iFont of Smallcw (lE^urc^. 



By Percy H. Currey, Hon. Secretary. 



HEN the ancient chapel at Smalley was demolished 

 in 1790, the old font was removed, and disappeared. 

 The Rev. T. B. Charlesworth, Vicar of Smalley, has, 

 however, recently discovered, and proposes to restore 

 to the church, what would appear to be the bowl of 

 this old font. It was used as a cattle trough on the farm 

 of Mr. Barber, who bought it at the sale of the effects of the 

 late Mr. Purvis, of Flamstead ; and we know that other stones 

 from the church have been sold and used in neighbouring 

 buildings. 



The bowl in question is a plain, circular vessel, 2 ft. i in. 

 in diameter, and i ft. 9 ins. in height, pierced for a drain, and 

 the lower part has apparently been dressed off to give it a 

 flat base. In a description of the original, supplied by an old 

 inhabitant to the Rev. Chas. Kerry, and given in Dr. Cox's 

 Churches of Derbyshire, there is said to have been an orna- 

 mental band round the top. But such sources of information 

 are often unreliable, and, in view of the great lapse of time 

 since the font was removed, it probably is so in this case; 

 or it is even possible that the top of the bowl may have been 

 dressed down in a similar way to the base. On the one hand, 

 it is certainly difficult to believe that this heavy circular bowl, 

 drained in the centre, can have been made for a cattle trough 



