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The font, which incorporates a 12thc. fragment, stands in an extension of the nave dating from 1961; there is no other Romanesque sculpture in the building.
East Dean, but no church, is mentioned in the Domesday Survey.
The fragment was found in 1887, supporting one of the tie-beams of the nave roof (although said by Drummond-Roberts to have been found in a farmyard). The designs of the upper and lower borders resemble those of the fonts at St Anne, Lewes and Denton, both of which have a central band of basketwork.
The dedication of the church is cited by Drummond-Roberts in 1935 as St Swithin and St Jude.
J. Morris and J. Mothersill (ed.), Domesday Book: Sussex. Chichester 1976, 9.44.
M. F. Drummond-Roberts, Some Sussex Fonts Photographed and Described. Brighton 1935, 31.
I. Nairn and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex. Harmondsworth 1965, 45, 491.
Rev. A. A. Evans, `Three Sussex Fonts', Sussex County Herald, 1 May 1920.
A. K. Walker, An Introduction to the Study of English Fonts with Details of those in Sussex. London 1908, 52-53.
