Lyndall Hacker explores the Cathedral font by Thomas Earp, sculptor of the Eleanor Cross Monument in the forecourt of Charing Cross Station. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2006-2007.

Originally set in the centre of the nave by the west door, the font has since been moved to its present position between two columns of the south arcade.

Eatly 20th-century photograph of the font in its original position. Rochester Cathedal Chapter Library, postcard collection.

Thomas Earp of Lambeth (1828-93) was one of the most eminent and prolific of those master-craftsmen of late Victorian England whose work complements that of the great church architects of the time. The font at Rochester Cathedral, which was a part of the restoration work overseen by I L Pearson, is thought to be one of Earp's more significant pieces. Sculptured with great delicacy, for which the beautiful, creamy Hopton Wood Stone (an early carboniferous limestone) is well suited, it is an excellent exemplar of Earp's eye for detail and refinement of technique.

G H Palmer, BA, in Bell's Cathedral Series on Rochester, describes the font as being "round in form, supported by a central column, of quatrefoil section, and four shafts placed corner-wise, rising from a double plinth" in the shape of a cross "on which, facing the door, is the brass inscription table. Round the bowl are four groups in relief, facing the cardinal points, with eight single figures inserted in pairs between them.'

3D model of the font, 2020. Select annotations to identify the sculpted figures.

Both the Old and New Testaments are nicely represented on the font and today when there is a movement to interpret the Cathedral in a meaningful way, it is a 'gift' for anyone who would wish to attempt to do so. A garland of heraldic roses symbolising the Virgin Mary encircles the font above the figures.

Little is know about Canon Henry William Burrows in whose memory the font was erected. He held a stall in Rochester Cathedral from 1881 until his death in 1892 and Christina Georgina Rossetti described him as "the truest and best of friends". Nevertheless, a considerable debt is owed to him and the subscribers who felt moved to commission this enduring memorial which is not only an outstanding embellishment of the Cathedral but a piece which perfectly reflects the period and the culture of the neo-Gothic revival.

Lyndall Hacker

Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2006-2007