Lund nr. Beverley

Mo entry found for this Lund in the Domesday survey. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Dated in Betjeman (1958) to the 12th century. Listed and illustrated in the CRSBI [https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=2828] [accessed 24 July 2024]: "The font has been maltreated at some time, but rescued, restored and replaced, probably during the 1853 restoration. Only the bowl is 12thc. Originally it would have been a cylinder element having arcading (ten bays), including one bay with foliate ornament, possibly a tree. At some time an attempt was made to give it a square base, resulting in what Pevsner and Neave describe as a 'square with rounded corners'. This is its plan below, but it had a circular rim, and still does, thanks to restoration of about half of the circumference. The arcade is very naively done, even the restoration hints at that, but even so, the wear to which it has been subject has exaggerated its simplicity. The hypothesis that a tree was carved on the font would be supported by comparison with the Tree in the Garden of Eden at Riccall (North Yorkshire), which is made up of roots, a double column, a single-scallop capital and a few leaves and 'cherries'. Although this was the only visible carving, the leaflet suggests that there had been another. This might be in the fourth bay in an anticlockwise direction, just before the new rim begins again. This bay appears to have three columnar shapes. There is an incised cross on the L bay. A roughly-incised cross is found on the drum font at Thorngumbald." The badly damaged basin was roughly cylindrical but someone decided to try squaring the circle and re-cut its lower side square therebydestroying the original design and its ornamentation; the sides were ornamented with a blind arcade of round arches, but are now practicaly obliterated; the octagobal pedestal base is of a later date. There is a plain flat wooden cover; modern.