East Meon - All Saints Church

East Meon was part of a Royal Manor belonging first to King Alfred the Great who left it in his will to his youngest son Æthelweard (c.880-922). The Domesday Book of 1086 shows that the Manor then belonged to William the Conqueror.

There is uncertainty as to when building work on the church commenced, one source gives a date between 1130 and 1140,while the parish history gives 1080. The church was probably built on a site where there was a pre-existing Anglo-Saxon structure. The original church was in the shape of a cross, 110 feet long and 62 feet wide, and is easily identified by the Romanesque arches. The tower is of c. 1150, although the lead-covered broach spire is probably 1230, The decoration – scallops and zigzag – is similar to that found on Winchester Cathedral.

I had already seen some baptismal fonts in England that resembled the "Tournai Fonts". This one, dated 1130/40 is a Tournai font. These fonts were made from blue black limestone during the 12th and early 13th centuries in and around the Belgian town of Tournai by local masons.

The friezes on this font depict the creation of Adam and Eve, the temptation, the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden and Adam being shown how to dig and various animals, birds and dragons on the south and west faces.

Adam is shown how to use a shovel by an angel, while Eve can already spin.