Standish nr. Wigan

No individual entry found for this Standish in the Domesday survey. An entry for the church at Standish in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (LV, 1905: 260-261) reads: "The font seems to be a patchwork of three distinct periods, each marked by a different quality of stone. The bowl is of yellow sandstone, octagonal in shape, the eight panels being alike in design, and having a six-leaved ornament deeply cut, with a shield in the centre. This bowl corresponds exactly in every detail with the bowl in the font in Sefton Church. It stands upon a circular stem of plain clustered columns of a hard grey stone; this appears to be the remains of an earlier font of perhaps late Norman date. The base upon which the stem stands is again of a different stone, and in design is out of keeping with the other parts of the font." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Noted in the Victoria County History (Lancaster, vol. 6, 1911): "The font stands at the west end of the south aisle, and consists of an octagonal bowl of yellow sandstone with blank shields within sexfoils on each face. It is probably of early 16th-century date, but stands on an older stem of plain clustered shafts of hard greystone, and the base, again, is of different stone and of later date." This same source reports on a 1739 archdeacon's report on the state of the church which includes the font and cover (ibid., fn90): "From Chester Consistory Court records. There was a stone font with a cover." Pollard & Pevsner (2006) note: Base C19, bowl C16, stem of unknown date."
[NB: this same source notes that there is little trace of the church building which was replaced by the 16th-century church; perhaps the stem of the present font belonged to an earlier font?]