Colsterworth / Colsteuorde / Colstewrde

There are two entries for Colsterworth [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SK9223/colsterworth/] [accessed 22 October 2018] neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Fowler (1876a) writes: "The font is a very interesting one , for although its bowl is only a plain octangular one of the Decorated period, its base is Transitional and richly carved with curious ornamentation. Probably this is the bowl of the preceeding font. It is enriched with interesting lancet work, trefoils, quatrefoils, and other ornaments. On one of the panels is carved the Holy Lamb and banner, on another a head within an oval, perhaps intended for that of John the Baptist, the patron saint of this church, below which are two trefoils, suggestive of the Holy Trinity. The other principal subjects are now mutilated." Cox & Harvey (1907) note that the base is of the Norman period. Bond (1908), lists this font in his chapter "Norman fonts" without specifications of basin or base, and mentions an Agnus Dei symbol on the basin side. Listed in Stocker (1997) as one of seven examples in Licolnshire where "a font bowl is [...] recorded as having been set upside down to provide the base for a successor". Fowler (1876a) writes: "By the aid of this font, Newton was baptised, the record of which runs thus in the parish register: --"Isaac, sonne of Isaac and Hanna Newton, Jany. 1, 1642 [i.e., 1643]" [NB: Isaac Newton was born in nearby Woolthorpe on 25 December 1642, and his baptism took place in the parish church of St. John the Baptist, in Colsterworth, on 1 January 1643]. NB: a recent [28 September 2009] photograph of this font by Tina Manthorpe [http://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/3983244816/in/pool-oldfonts] [accessed 19 October 2009] shows a completely different basin now mounted on the old base: it is octagonal and decorated with an intersecting arcade of round arches with beaded-tape arch heads; the spaces in the arcade are filled with a variety of motifs and symbols; it is a modern basin; the old stem appears to have had some of the decorative motifs re-tooled or re-carved. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SK9302924153] notes: "Parish church. C11, mid and late C12, C13, 1305, C14, C15, 1809, 1876 chancel rebuilt by James Fowler of Louth. [...] The octagonal font has part C15 stem with panels in part bearing pointed arches containing sacred symbols and floriate designs, and also C12 billet moulded blank arcading the panels filled with fleurons and trefoils. The C19 bowl repeats this theme."