Nafferton / Nadfartone

There are two entries for Nafferton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TA0558/nafferton/] [accessed 21 July 2014], but neither mentions a church or cleric in it. Sheahan & Whellan (1857) write: ''The present font is modern, and the old font, an immense cylinder, made more than 700 years ago, is preserved in the Belfry, but it narrowly escaped being broken up for the repair of the roads, in 1828.'' Noted in Glynne's 30 November 1865 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007): "The font is an early one, of circular form, sculptured all over with lozenges and scrolls, on a new circular stem." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Noted in Hobson (1924) as Norman. Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a diapered font with "a very rich effect being produced by the insertion of small crosses or other figures and emblems within the trellis pattern". This same source (ibid.) mentions that the fonts at Rudston, Bainton, Barmston, Carnaby and Weaverthorpe, all in the East Riding of Yorkshire, have similar ornamentation. Mentioned in Betjeman (1958) as a Norman font, comparable to the one at Bessingby, as does Muir (1997). The basin, the only original part, is perfectly cylindrical; the upper rim is decorated with a cable moulding below which runs a row of loops in the manner of round arches, but the crossing thread-ends feed into a diaper/trellis pattern that covers the whole remaining surface; in some of the romboid spaces of the diaper/trellis has been carved a variety of tiny motifs: foliage, stars, saltires, etc. It is not clear from the present mounting of this basin on a narrow cylindrical pedestal base and wide circular plinth whether the font had some sort of base originally, or it rested directly on the ground; the inner surface of the basin is lead lined. The font cover is flat and plain but for a loop handle; it is obviously modern but there are two notches at opposite ends in the upper rim surface that denote the presence of the original metal staples. [We are grateful to Colin Hinson, of www.genuki.ac.uk, for his photographs of this font]