Brancepeth

No entry for Brancepeth found in the Domesday survey. Hutchinson (1823) writes: "The font is large bason of Stanhope marble." In Mackenzie & Ross (1834): "The font is a circular basin of Stanhope marble, with a lofty spire, curiously carved and painted". Billings (1846) refers to "a canopied font cover, of [...] incongruous detail", the work of Bishop Cosin, who had been rector at Brancepeth before 1660. Fordyce (1857) adds that it is a "a circular basin". Noted in Murray (1873). Bond (1908) mentions a font cover of similar design to the one by bishop Cosin [i.e., John Cosin, bishop of Durham 1660-1672] at Durham Cathedral: "a fine Post-Reformation cover of Jacobean detail but Gothic design"; there is no mention of the font itself in Bond. Described as "an attractive font of Frosterley Marble" in the Northeast England History Pages [www.thenortheast.frsnet.co.uk]. Pevsner (1983) writes of "the poor-quality carving and full classical motifs (crowns and cherubs' heads) on the font cover. Very Jacobean finials on the tall crocketed spire supported by full-round Corinthian columns with flat dull tracery between. It is now carried on four black wrought-iron posts, a very characteristic design by Pace [i.e., G.G. Pace] of 1972, but one that does not detract from the cover itself." The present font is illustrated in a 28 August 2009 photograph in Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/photos/fishchap/3874685556/in/set-72157622195086834/] [accessed 20 January 2010]. It appears restored, probably after being damaged in the fire of 1998 which practically destroyed the interior of the church. The basin is round with tapering sides, a moulding ath the lower rim, otherwise plain; round stem and round lower base. The Parish web site [http://www.stbrandon.org.uk/brancepeth-history/] [accessed 7 February 2017] notes: "In Saxon days there was a great house and a church; the first recorded Rector was a monk Haeming in 1085." [NB: we have no information on the font of the pre-Conquest church here].