Font cover at Ewelme, Oxfordshire

Ewelme, Oxfordshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.

The Bodley and Garner font cover at Brant Broughton reminded me to post a picture of the towering font cover at Ewelme in Gloucestershire. A delicate piece of design, it is comprised of diminishing tiers of tabernacling, topped with a lovely little figure of St Michael. Like most of its ilk the cover is counterweighted, and it lifts up to allow baptism.

If Pevsner is to be believed the cover was presented by John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk in 1475. John's mother Alice de la Pole, who has a lavish tomb in the church, was the grandaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer.