Font - Willoughby, Warwickshire

This distinctive 13th-century font at St Nicholas, Willoughby, is carved in the form of a large, rounded cauldron-shaped bowl, a type characteristic of the later medieval period in the East and West Midlands. The bowl swells outward above a narrow foot and rests on a square stem rising from a broad, rounded base.
The upper register is decorated with a continuous frieze of stylised foliage, its forms simplified into repeated leaf clusters and broad, incised stems. Among these vegetal motifs appears a Green Man mask, its face emerging from curling leaves—an emblematic survival of earlier medieval natural symbolism. The carving is relatively shallow and weathered, but the principal features remain visible.
The stem incorporates a shallow, framed blank panel, probably intended either for a painted inscription or as a decorative field. The base is roughly dressed and retains signs of medieval tooling.
The Willoughby font is a good example of 13th-century regional craftsmanship, combining a practical cauldron form with modest carved ornament. Its Green Man frieze makes it one of the more characterful medieval fonts in south Warwickshire.
