Norfolk Pilgrim

Read this at https://medieval-graffiti.blogspot.com/ "A moment in time - when a resigned population took stock of what God had sent their way, and what the church had failed to protect them from, and carved, painted and gilded their own reactions to events in the very fabric of the church itself. A stark irreverence combined with open elements of humour and parody. Fat friars and stupid priests, lecherous monks and harlot nuns, green men and grotesque beasts - all thrust into the very body of the church. Gone is the quiet reverence, and instead flows out a stream of self expression that obliquely questions the very structure of the church and the society in which they lived." in  https://medieval-graffiti.blogspot.com/2018/11/messing-about-in-church-sublime-and.html I think it encapsulates so much about post Black Death religion in Norfolk. I will quote it often!

This font base was recently rescued from the church of Holy Trinity, Hautbois before the redundant church was handed over to the Guides as an extra building for their Hautbois Activities Centre . As far as I know it's providence is as follows : It had been buried and discovered in the 19th C when the nave of , the now ruined, church of St.Mary (a.k.a. St.Theobald) was being cleared. Historic England record the font in these terms: E arly C12 font base, supporting C19 square bawl. Base carved with entwined winged serpents, divided from the foliated base section by double keel moulding. I imagine "bawl" is a typo. What they do not say, although this is true, is,  "the square bowl it is utterly hideous!"  To my mind the lower layer of the font base is not so much foliate as waves of the sea, but perhaps I am reading too much into it. In any case, the meaning of the iconography seems to be clear enough, "We are rescued from chaos, through the wa