Font - South Kilworth

1180 to 1220
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This late 12th-century font at St Nicholas, South Kilworth, is carved in the form of a large inverted capital, a type found in several East Midlands Romanesque churches. The bowl flares outward from a cylindrical stem, its surface treated with a series of broad, vertical flutes rising into stylised leaf motifs at the rim. These leaves—simple, rounded, and evenly spaced—suggest a restrained version of the waterleaf or early stiff-leaf idiom, transitional between late Romanesque and early Gothic vocabulary.

The underside of the bowl is strengthened by a moulded necking, above a plain cylindrical shaft, itself resting on a heavy circular base. The overall effect is architectural rather than figurative, evoking the form of a large column capital repurposed as a baptismal vessel. Whether this piece is an actual adapted capital or a font consciously carved in the manner of a capital remains open, but its proportions and decorative language are fully consistent with late 12th-century workshop practice.

The font is one of the more distinctive Romanesque survivals in south Leicestershire, notable for its strong, clean profile and its transitionary foliate ornament bridging the Romanesque and early Gothic periods.