A CRUMBLING Victorian font that had change into redundant when an ecumenical church in York was reordered 50 years ago is to be buried within the churchyard.
The Consistory Court of the diocese of York granted a college permitting St Paul’s, Heslington, to bury the stays of the listed Victorian font. St Paul’s is Grade II listed, and originated as a chapel of York Minster. It underwent an intensive reordering in 1973, when it became a joint Anglican and Methodist church that also serves each the parish and the university.
As a part of the reordering, a stainless-steel font, thought to be more in step with the brand new modern interior, was introduced. This replaced the unique Nineteenth-century font, fabricated from soft limestone and, unusually, listed in its own right.
The original font was then placed outside and used as a plant pot, and, lately, it was noticed that it had deteriorated considerably, with extensive cracking and the lack of the rim. In October 2022, an interim faculty was obtained to bring it back into the church with the intention that conservation work be undertaken, and it will be relocated for display as a “museum piece”.
A conservation report by an expert stone conservator, and other skilled advice, nonetheless, indicated that the font had suffered too badly from weathering, and that its very poor condition and the expense involved in restoring it will not make it possible for it to change into a museum piece.
Other options for the disposal of the unique font were explored. After consultation with the archdeacon and the diocesan advisory committee (DAC), the conclusion was that the burial of the font within the churchyard was the very best option within the circumstances. That option was really useful by the DAC and unanimously supported by the PCC. There were no objections from the general public.
The Church Buildings Council, the Victorian Society, and Historic England were consulted. Each of them raised objections to the proposal, but none elected to change into a celebration opponent.
The Diocesan Chancellor, the Worshipful Lyndsey de Mestre KC, said that the case law indicated that “the burial of fonts needs to be seen very much as a final resort,” and the provision of other options needs to be considered sequentially first. Those other options were: relocation within the church, relocation in one other church, relocation to a museum, sale, or storage.
Alternatives to burial had been investigated, but were either not available or were impractical or undesirable. The highly individual modern interior of the church after the 1973 reordering meant that each the shortage of an appropriate space and the confusion of an otherwise unbroken interior character were presently barriers to the reintroduction of the unique font to the inside as a display item.
Relocation to a different church had also been investigated, with the help of the DAC;s Church Buildings Adviser, over a period of greater than a yr, and no church had been found which was willing tackle the font. It was highly unlikely that a taker could be found. Sale of the font had been explored as an option, but no buyer had been found.
Space for storage within the diocesan store was available. The Chancellor didn’t agree, nonetheless, that storage needs to be opted for, instead of burial, on this particular case. Storage in a diocesan store where it is likely to be inadvertently chipped, bumped, or knocked over was unlikely to afford the font any greater physical protection than burial in the bottom would do, the Chancellor said, and it also severed “the group and communal value links and [lacked] something of the symbolism, reverence, and respect that burial would afford it”. It was also “more prone to end in the unique font being forgotten about and lying permanently moribund in the shop than a dignified (and reversible) burial within the churchyard with appropriate record keeping”, she said.
In those circumstances, the Chancellor considered that burial of the font was potentially an appropriate end result on the facts of the case. In reaching that conclusion, the Chancellor had borne in mind that there was a robust presumption against a proposal that adversely affected the special character of a listed constructing, and on this case an individually listed font.
The moderate harm that may flow from the burial of the unique font was “amply outweighed”, she said, by the general public advantages that the church would receive, including the power to keep up its current seating capability.
The parish could be spared the prices of restoration, and would even be maintaining the historical, spiritual, and communal links that the church had with the font, by retaining it on site in a way that, ultimately, was reversible in the long run, should there be a desire to unearth and restore it, the Chancellor said.
