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Description
The church's carved octagonal baptismal font depicts the four Evangelists, the Apostles around the bowl, and eight female saints around the stem, and is decorated with leaves and branches on the underside. It bears a close resemblance to the font at St Julian, Norwich. It was transferred to St Mary Magdalene in 1946. The font, which is 44 inches high and 27 inches across, is set on a pedestal beside the south arcade. The foliage under the bowl has a style that shows that the font is early 16th-century.
The illustrations show the font in 2023; Henry Ninham's watercolour, Interior of St. James's Church, Norfolk, (before 1874);and George Plunkett's photograph of the font taken in August 1937.
The following list of saints depicted around the font is from Sidney Long’s The History of the Church and Parish of St James with Pockthorpe, Norwich. The directions derive from the position of the font when it was at St James.
Around the bowl: N – Peter and Paul; W – James the Great and Thomas; W – John the Baptist and John the Apostle; SW – Andrew and Matthew; S – James the less? And Edward, King and Martyr; SE – William of Norwich and Matthias; E – Bartholomew and Thomas; NE Simon and Jude.
Around the stem: N – Etheldreda; NW – Barbara; W – Elizabeth?; SW – Blida?; S – Helena; SE – Catherine; E – Mary and Child; NE – Margaret.
Sources and further information
Long, Sydney (1961). The History of the Church and Parish of St. James with Pockthorpe, Norwich. Ramsgate: The Church Publishers.
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