Thornton Steward / Thorneton / Tornenton / Thorneton Dapifer / Thorneton Stiward / Thornton Stuard / Thornton Stuart / Thornton Stuerd / Thornton Styward / Tornentone / Tornentune

There are two entries for Thornton [Steward] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE1787/thornton-steward/] [accessed 25 October 2019] one of which reports a church in it. Whitaker (1823) describes the font as cylindrical but his illustration of the font shows a polygonal basin [cf. ImagesArea]. Glynne's 27 May 1871 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007) reports: "The font is Early English, the bowl octagonal with rather concave sides, upon eight short legs or shafts having capitals of foliage and octagonal bases". Glynne (ibid.) further notes that this font was "Engraved in Whitaker's Richmondshire". Described in Bulmer's Directory of 1890 simply as an ancient font. The entry for this parish in the Victoria Count History (York North Riding, vol. 1, 1914) notes: "The church of ST. OSWALD apparently still retains the walling of an early Norman church, the plan being very little altered. [...] The round-headed south doorway of the west porch is of the 12th century; it is square-edged and has a plain tympanum resting on rude cushion capitals and columns; the arch itself is ornamented with the cheveron. [...] The chancel arch is debased 18th-century work. [...] The font is octagonal, resting on eight capitals ranged round a central pillar. These capitals are foliated and date from the 13th century; their shafts have been cut away, and they now rest directly on their bases." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Transitional period [i.e., 1150-1200]. Noted in Morris (1931): "Remarkable 13th-cent. font -- a plain, heavy, octagonal bowl, separated from a plain octagonal base by short, circular shafts, with foliated capitals, surrounding a central drum." Pevsner (1985) writes: "Font. C13, on eight supports with stiff-leaf capitals." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SE1705086939] notes: "Church. C11 Anglo-Saxon or early Romanesque with C14, C17 and C19 alterations. [...] Octagonal font resting on 8 shafts with foliated C13 capitals, Jacobean cover with ball finial. [...] Fragments of Anglo-Scandinavian sculptured crosses". The font consists of a plain octagonal (?) basin of slightly tapering sides on a base formed by a broad central shaft and eight slender colonnettes with foliage capitals and moulded bases; the lower base is also octagonal and plain, the whole raised on a polygonal plinth. The font cover, about three feet tall, has an octagonal plant with sides tapering in towards a metal ball finial.