Thirsk No. 1 / Thresk / Throsk / Thrusken / Thurske / Thyrsk / Tresc / Tresch / Tresche / Treske

There are two entries for Thirsk [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE4282/thirsk/] [accessed 6 December 2019] neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Glynne's 5 February 1834 visit to this church (in Butler, 2997) reports: "The font is a plain octagon basin, with a lofty wood cover of tabernacle work." Bulmer's History, Topography, and Directory... (1890) reads: "A new font has, with questionable taste, replaced the old octagonal one. The bowl of the latter was large enough to admit of immersion, and was covered by a canopy of beautiful perpendicular tabernacle work, standing 21 feet high, which was, with barbarous taste, shortened in 1858, to allow of a better view of the barrel organ." [NB: Bulmer's makes no mention as to the whereabouts of the old 'immersion' font]. The baptismal font is listed in Cox-Harvey (1907) as being of the Perpendicular period/style. This same source (ibid.) mentions "the restored Perpendicular font cover at Thirsk actually attains to the height of 21 feet" [6.3 m.] This font cover is listed in Bond (1908) simply as a fine Gothic example. Both font and cover are illustrated in Fawcett (1844); the font is plain, octagonal and mounted on a an equally plain and octagonal pedestal. The tall cover is pyramidal and ornamented with trefoil windows on the lower part, while the upper is loaded with crocketted pinnacles. The whole is raised on a square plinth. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York North Riding, vol. 2, 1923) notes: "The church of Thirsk with the chapel of St. James formed part of the foundation grant made to Newburgh Priory by Roger de Mowbray in 1145. [...] The building is almost wholly of the 15th century, but part of the west wall of the tower and doubtless the core of its other walls are of much earlier date, probably of the 12th century. [...] The font is a modern octagonal one of stone with panelled sides. The tall canopied cover over it has some 15th-century tabernacle work in its upper part." [NB: the font now [ca. 2001] in this church is neither the old disappeared one, nor the plain one illustrated in Fawcett -how accurate was he in his drawings?- nor can it be the Perpendicular one reported in Cox & Harvey above, but a Victorian octagonal mounted font in the general Perpendicular style. What is genuine, however, is the restored 15th-century Gothic cover. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SE4273382325] notes; "A fine perpendicular church [...] Begun at the west c1430, progressed eastwards, being completed in the later C15 as indicated by the flatter chancel window arches. Restored by Street 1877. Possible fragments of earlier building visible on west wall of nave"; no font mentioned in it. [NB: a font originally from the Hood Grange Cistercian priory is reported in the gardens at Thirsk Hall, the manor house of Frederic Bell, Esq.]