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• But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘… listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth … you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.  But God raised him up, having freed him from death. … Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit … . (Acts 2:14, 22–24, 36–38, NRSV)

The Apostle Peter preached this sermon seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, and ever since then new Christians have been baptised: initially by full immersion in a river; then whole households were baptised; and finally Christian households began to ask for new-born infants to be baptised as well—hence the transition from full immersion in a river to the pouring of water from a font. 

The font was made by the stone-mason Christopher Kempster, who was also the mason who built the church itself.