It may well be exactly that, at this point. But its origins are considerably more ambiguous, and arguably more interesting.

The basin measures roughly half a metre across and thirty centimetres in height, with a central circular hollow cut into its upper surface. That surface is finished with a scalloped rim and a series of shallow indentations, suggesting some deliberate craft rather than purely functional cutting. The object has been identified as a possible font, the kind of stone vessel used in churches for holding holy water during baptism or blessing. However, the absence of a drain hole complicates that reading. A more likely interpretation is that it functioned as a bénitier, a free-standing vessel for holy water, placed near a church entrance so that worshippers could bless themselves on the way in. The distinction matters because a bénitier would not need to drain, while a baptismal font typically would. The house itself sits around 200 metres north-west of a site locally known as the Abbey Field, which suggests some kind of ecclesiastical context in the area, even if the precise nature of any structure there remains unclear. Also kept in the same garden is a small fragment of cut stone, recorded as having come from close to the Abbey Field. It is modest in size, roughly nine centimetres by six, with a pair of shallow circular depressions set into its opposing faces. What it was made for, nobody has yet determined.