A gallery of baptismal fonts in Oxfordshire

Baptismal fonts in Methodist churches can be found in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Alabaster fonts with or without a stem come in a range of colours. Most of them are of the table-top form. Ceramic miniature copies of medieval fonts tend to date to from the nineteenth century.  Wooden fonts (with a ceramic, glass or metal bowl) became more popular in the twentieth century.

Bowls with the capacity to hold plenty of water have become more widely used in recent years, either sitting on the communion table, or housed in a floor-standing base.

The history of a font can tell us a great deal about the church in which they have been used as well as hinting at the lives and priorities of those who may have gifted them.

New, often floor-standing fonts are brought into use when space has been created as a result of reordering the church. In these cases fonts are sometimes designed to match a communion table and lectern. Occasionally fonts are built into new church building.