This remarkable Romanesque font at Burford is one of the finest surviving sculpted examples in Oxfordshire. Carved from a single massive block of limestone, the bowl is cylindrical in form and ornamented with a sequence of high-relief narrative scenes, though many are now heavily eroded. Despite the loss of surface detail, the surviving compositions still convey the ambition of the original programme.

The best-preserved panel depicts the Crucifixion, with Christ on the cross flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John. Their elongated bodies, draped in simple vertical folds, exemplify the stylised treatment of the mid-12th century. To one side appears a second figure beneath an arch—likely part of a now-fragmentary Passion sequence—and further sculpted forms survive around the circumference in varying states of preservation.

Above the panels, the upper rim has suffered extensive wear and damage, but traces of the original decorative banding remain visible. The figures are carved beneath small architectural canopies, an early expression of the Romanesque tendency to frame sacred narrative within simplified architectural motifs.

The base, though plain, belongs to the same period, and the robust proportions of both bowl and stem underscore the monumental quality typical of Norman fonts. The whole stands on a later circular plinth that stabilises the medieval structure.

The Burford font is a significant piece of 12th-century sculpture: its iconographic ambition, its scale, and its integration of figural relief with architectural framing place it among the more sophisticated Romanesque fonts of the region. Despite erosion, it remains an exceptional witness to the narrative and devotional concerns of the period’s baptismal imagery.