THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

THE OLD FONTS OF WIRRAL
church, was stated to embody the fact that
our Lord rose from the grave eight days
after the crucifixion, and doubtless the
emblems of the Passion which surround
Woodchurch font would give colour to
this view in the eyes of many people.
Another theory is that, since the old world
and the first man were created in seven
days, the new world of grace and regeneration
and the new man must have been
created on the eighth day, of which facts
the eight-sided font is the outward symbol.
Circular fonts again are held to
symbolise the idea that in baptism imperfect
man is made perfect. But so many
six or seven-sided fonts, and oval fonts
exist, as well as other forms, that none
of these theories are now regarded as
tenable.
The surviving fonts in Wirral may now
be described in detail, placing them as far
as possible in the order of their antiquity.
Of these Eastham would appear to come
an easy first, as it has been pronounced by
some experts to be possibly even pre-Conquest
in date. Fonts would appear to
have existed from the ixth century,
though not in churches, and such as are
believed to survive are of the type of that
109