Rotherham No. 1 / Rodreham

There is an entry for Rotherham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SK4392/rotherham/] [accessible 19 November 2018]; it mentions a priest and a church in it. Hunter (1828-1831) notes: "The old font, perhaps a relic of the Saxon church, is in the church-yard, and may be seen represented in Grimm's drawing." Glynne's visit to this church on 12 September 1825 (in Butler, 2007) reports: "Outside the door of the South Transept is the dispised [sic] and rejected original font, now turned into the Churchyard to give place to a modern unworthy successor. It is circular and has an appearance of Norman about it." Illustrated in Fawcett (1844) as the "old font" and looking rather battered, a term used by Mee (1941) in the description of this object. The National Gazetteer of 1868 notes that the "old font is supposed to be of the Saxon period". Armitage (1905), however, refers that "the old Norman font of the former church is kept here." The Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council [www.rotherham.gov.uk/] [accessed 17 November 2008} informs: "the Chapel of Jesus which Thomas founded in 1480. In the chapel stands the Norman Font (c. 1190) in which Thomas was baptised. Before the 1870's restoration of the church the font stood outside for about 200 years, and was known locally as the 'Round Stone'." The font consists of a cylindrical basin ornamented with a moulding on the upper basin side; a blind Gothic arcade of trefoil arches runs all around the basin side [decoration which does not fit the early dates attributed by some authors, unless it was re-carved?]. The pedestal base is rounded and has round mouldings at different heights [the "new font" appears in this Index under the entry Rotherham No. 2]. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SK4283992876] notes: "Church. C14 chancel heightened in C16, early C15 tower, rest completed late C15 and early C16; C18 and C19 restorations principally that by George Gilbert Scott of 1873-75. [...] Font in south aisle c1879 has spire cover. C12 font in north aisle, weathered." The entry for this church in the CRSBI (2018) notes: "The existence of the Anglo-Saxon doorway indicating a church preceding the Romanesque one, and the size and cruciform plan of the church in the 12th century, helps account for the church recently becoming styled ‘Rotherham Minster’. [...] Font. See Green (1950, 27) for details of 4 fonts once associated with the church, also Hunter (1831, 17-18). The older of the two fonts now in the church is in the N transept chapel and is not in use (as a font). It is illustrated in Guest (1879, 330), where it is described as ‘The Old Font’; in the current guide, it is called the Norman font. It is not considered by fiedlworker RW to be 12th century [...] The older font is very weathered. It consists of three stones; the two lowest are of similar thickness, but the large upper one includes stem and bowl, with various strong mouldings in the profile. The pattern round the bowl appears to have been of a pointed arcade, but everything is too worn to speculate further. [...] Greene (1950, 27), mentions two fonts: ‘The ancient font, usually described as the Norman font, now stands in the north transept…[it] has suffered much in its long life; during the eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries it stood outside the south transept door, and was known as “The Round Stone”. In 1875 it was placed within the Church.’ Two other fonts formerly at the church are now at Greasbrough and Brinsworth. [...] The 'Norman Font' is not considered by RW to be 12th century, its structure is too complex." [bib refs in CRSBI: D. Greene, The Parish Church of All Saints, Rotherham, 2nd. ed., n.p., c.1950. -- J. Guest, Historic Notices of Rotherham, 1879. -- RW = Rita Wood, CRSBI fieldworker].