This imposing Norman font at Hereford Cathedral is a mid-12th-century work of exceptional scale and ambition. Carved from a single massive block of limestone, the bowl is large enough to have allowed for the immersion of infants, reflecting early medieval baptismal practice.

The exterior of the basin is decorated with a sequence of twelve figures of the Apostles, each set beneath a round-headed arch supported by slender shafts. The relief is characteristically Romanesque: the figures are elongated, drapery is rendered in stylised folds, and architectural framing is kept simple yet rhythmic. The faces of the apostles were defaced during the Reformation, when figurative imagery was often targeted for destruction; only the outlines of the bodies and the architectural framing remain clearly legible.

Above the apostolic arcade, the upper register contains a band of interlaced and geometric patterning, giving the bowl a strongly architectural profile and marking the transition to the basin’s rim.

The font stands on a substantial circular pedestal, at the foot of which sit four carved lions. These crouching beasts, symbolic guardians of the faith, are a well-established motif in Romanesque sculpture, echoing continental traditions in which lions uphold thrones, pulpits, and baptismal vessels. Their presence reinforces the font’s meaning as both a spiritual threshold and an object of ecclesiastical authority.

Set on a patterned floor of Victorian mosaic, the font remains one of the cathedral’s most important survivals from the 12th century. Its combination of scale, narrative iconography, and Romanesque animal supports places it among the finest Norman fonts in England.