Barnetby / Barnetby le Wold / Barnetby-le-Wold / Barnet-le-Wolde / Bernodebi

Noted in Cox (1875). Illustrated in a pencil-and-ink sketch now in the Sir Henry Dryden Collection, [Northamptonshire Libraries and Information Service] [ref.: MF R06 F338] [the sketch shows the font resting directly on the ground, without a base; the skectch is noted: "Leaden font Barnetby Co Linc. / Done for H.D. by Miss Street 1885 / See also Arch Soc Reports Vol. IV, 248."]. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy lead font from the late Norman period, bearing three bands of scroll-work. Dated in Bond (1908) to the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, and described as having "various decorations". This fine lead font, adds Bond (ibid.), "was found in the church coalshed". Crossley (1941), who spells the location "Barnet-le-Wolde", mentions a lead font ornamented with "three bands of twelfth century foliated ornament". Described and illustrated in Zarnecki (1957) as "the finest of the surviving English lead fonts decorated with foliage motives only", and dates it to between 1150 and 1160. Described in the Scunthorpe Museum entry as "cast in two pieces and welded together" and "decorated with an elegant orchid leaf design that can be dated to the late Norman period around 1170 A.D." The church was eventually taken over by the Redundant Churches Fund; the font was then deposited on loan in the Scunthorpe Museum where it now [February 2003] is on display. Described in Pevsner, Harris and Antram (1989) as "a piece of classical perfection, rare in English Norman work". [We are grateful to Peter Fairweather, Lincoln, England, for updating our information; we are also grateful to Dr. Kevin Leahy, keeper of archaeology of the Scunthorpe Museum, Scunthorpe, England, for providing recent images of this font (e-mail of 20 February 2003)]