Romaldkirk / Rumbaldekirk / Rumbaldkirk / Rumoldeschrce / vill of St. Rinald / vill of St. Rumald / Villa Sancti Reginaldi / Villa Sancto Romaldo

There is an entry for Romaldkirk [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/NY9922/romaldkirk/] [accessed 12 November 2019] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Glynne's 17 July 1866 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007) reports: "The font has a circular bowl with three courses of curious sculpture upon a stem of four clustered shafts with mouldings between and capitals." Bulmer's Directory of 1890 mentions "an ancient font" in this church. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Norman period (?). similarly ornamented to the font at Bowes, in the same Riding, and perhaps of pre-Norman date. [NB: a list of those who contributed to a number of furnishings , including the font cover "in ye year 1728" appears in "The Logstaffs of Teesdale and Weardale" by George Blundell Longstaff [2001 transcription by Carole A.M. Johnson], p. 430 - (ccxxxii.) Appendix XIV. - Parish Registers, which would indicate either a purchase of a new cover or a major repair to the old cover]. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York North Riding, vol. 1, 1914) notes: "The church is not mentioned in Domesday Book, but the name Romaldkirk points to an early foundation [...] The earliest part of the building is to be seen in the masonry at the north-west angle of the chancel, and shows the heavy north-east quoins of what was probably a pre-Conquest nave, aisleless and of the same width as the present nave [...] The font stands under the tower and has a circular bowl carved with three bands of reversed leaf pattern, like that at Bowes, but on a larger scale, and stands on a stem with four engaged shafts with moulded capitals and bases, with a hollow between two fillets alternating with the shafts. It is good 13th-century work and very effective" [NB: the font is now [2009] at the west end of the south aisle, opposite the south entrance]. In Morris (1931): "Interesting (?) 13th-cent. font, with pattern ((three tiers of fleur-de-lys upside down) like one at Bowes". Noted in Pevsner (1985): "Font. Drum-shaped, with three tiers of smallstylized leaves in circles; Norman (cf. Bowes)." Listed in Stocker (1997) as one of a group of "fonts reusing other Roman stone" in this county, in this case the shaft of the font. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: NY9952022129] reports: "probably C12 font; at west end of south aisle, has a circular bowl with 3 tiers of horseshoe-shaped leaf decoration, on a base with 4 attached colonnettes (probably C17 ogival wood font cover)"