The font is a basin of water, where Christians become members of the Church by being baptised, that is, having water poured over their head three times in the name of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is traditionally located at the west end of a church, near the entrance, which also symbolises the entrance of the Christian into the life of the Church.
St John’s font was made in 1877 in a loose version of the Romanesque style which lasted in England into the twelfth century.
Fonts were such holy objects that many survive even from these very early times, and it is not unusual to find a millennium-old font in a much later building. It follows many traditional Romanesque features: of eight sides, on eight slender columns with capitals and sitting on a plinth. It has a cover, made in 1951, another carry-over from medieval traditions, where the Holy Water had to be protected from theft by witches. It was moved to its present location in 1994 and painted by Helen McIldowie-Daltrey in 1996.