Durham No. 1 / Gilesgate

There is a 1773 ink-on-paper drawing of the interior of St. Giles' by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794) in the British Library Collections [Shelfmark: Additional MS 15538 - Item number: f.198], in which the font of that church is included; it is presumably the area used as baptistery, at the west end of the church, beneath the tower. Fordyce (1857) refers to the font as "a very good, though a plain example, of an Early English font". Whellan (1894), however, writes: "St. Giles Church, situated on the highest ground in the city, at the head of Gilesgate, was erected by Bishop [Ranulph] Flambard, and dedicated by him in person on St. Barbara's Day, 1112 […] The font is believed to be that of Bishop Flambard". Cox & Harvey (1907) note a Norman font in St. Giles. Described in the Victoria County History (Durham, 1928): "The oldest part of the building is the north wall of the nave, which dates from the time of Flambard, c. 1114; the chancel is of Pudsey's period, c. 1190–5, and the lower part of the tower is of early 13th-century date. The upper stages of the tower belong to the first quarter of the 15th century, and the remainder of the building is modern. [...] The baptistery is in the tower, the font consisting of a rough circular sandstone bowl, 2 ft. 9 in. in diameter, of 13th-century date, on a circular shaft and square base." The basin is plain and perfectly hemispherical; the pedestal base is round-to-square, and has a roll moulding at the upper end; standing on a modern circular plinth with kneeling stone.