Osmotherley / Asmundrelac / Asmundreli / Essemundrelege / Essemuthrelege / Osmunderlay / Osmunderleia

There is an entry for Osmotherley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE4597/osmotherley/] [accessed 28 November 2019] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Glynne's 18 August 1868 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007) reports: "The font has [a] circular bowl and is cast into the churchyard." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. [NB: not mentioned in Bulmer's 1890 Directory or in Pevsner (1985)]. An entry in the Yorkshire Notes and Queries (vol. V: 1909) notes a "Norman font with cable moulding" in this church [source: index by Colin Hinson © 2003 [www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/CBW/ynq/v5p8.htm]]. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York North Riding, vol. 1, 1914): "The carved fragments and the apse said to have been discovered at the last restoration point to the former existence of a pre-Conquest church here. The earliest part of the present church is the nave, which was built about 1190, to which date the south doorway, now in the aisle wall, belongs. [...] 12th-century font of straight cylindrical form, the only enrichment being a cable mould near the top edge." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SE4556797186] notes: "Church. C12 south door, C14 chancel, C15 south chapel and tower, C16 south porch and south aisle; chancel, south chapel, south aisle and nave virtually rebuilt during restoration in 1892 [...] Remains of an Anglo-Danish cross-shaft with interlace and part of a hogback tombstone. [...] Early C12 font, cylindrical in shape, with rope motif frieze near the top." There is damage to the upper rim likely caused by the old metal staples; the font has been remounted on a modern base. The wooden cover with graded mouldings is modern as well.