Well nr. Bedale / Welle

There is a multiple-place entry for Well [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE2682/well/] [accessed 26 November 2019]; it reports a priest and a church in it. Glynne's 27 May 1871 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007) reports: "The font has an octagonal bowl of cup shape; on a stem blazoned with shields and surmounted by a beautiful cover of tabernacle work in wood, suspended from the roof" [NB: Glynne (ibid.) has the dedication as 'St. James']. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York North Riding, vol. 1, 1914) notes: "There was a church at Well and a priest as early as 1086 [...] The south doorway of the nave and the bases of the nave arcades and chancel arch are late 12thcentury work, and probably the columns and capitals of the arcades and chancel arch are of the same date recut and repaired. [...] The font, which stands in the tower, is probably old, but has been recut; it is octagonal in plan and has modern shields on the sides of the bowl. Above it is a very fine and tall canopied wood cover of 15th-century date covered with modern paint. Each side is traceried, gabled and crocketed, with traceried and crocketed angle shafts, and it terminates in a tall crocketed finial." Noted in Morris (1931): "(?) 14th-cent. font, with good early 15th-cent. tabernacled cover." Pevsner (1985) does not mention the font itself but notes the cover: "Font Cover. A high canopy, dated 1352. The tracery work is indeed quite possible for that date, i.e. pre-Perp[endicular]." The octagonal mounted baptismal font consists of a suspicious-looking new basin raised on an octagonal pedestal base and splaying lower base of the same shape; the new-looking basin, octagonal with a rounded underbowl, is probably the original one, in which case it has been totally re-tooled down to the moulding that links it to the stem of the base and fitted with a new lead lining; an indication of its age may be seen on the upper rim surface; each side of the basin is decorated with a large shallow-relief shield; unlike the basin the base wears a patina of centuries of use. The whole is raised on an octagonal plinth decorated with beautiful late-medieval (14th - 15th century?) tiles on its upper surface. The font cover, a tall beautiful structure of tracery and cusped pinnacles, is dated on a local sign to 1352 [cf. ImageArea] and attributed "to the munificence of the founder's grandson, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland". Betjeman (1958: 424) has the cover dated to the 15th century. Not mentioned in Bond. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SE2681482058] notes; "Church. C12, early C14 and C15 with 1844 restoration. [...] Font cover of 1352, tall wooden elaborately traceried and crocketed pinnacle"; the font itself is not mentioned in the entry.