Bowness-on-Windermere

No individual entry for Bowness-on-Windermere found in the Domesday survey. Cox (1913) notes that the font at Windermere [i.e, Bowness-on-Windermere] is not Saxon, as often said, but Norman". Noted in Pevsner (1967): "Font. Octagonal, with tiny C12-looking heads at the corners." The Cumbria Directory [www.thecumbriadirectory.com] notes a baptismal font of the 13th century in the Parish Church of St. Martin in this town. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SD4025296904] notes: "A church has been on this site since 1203. Present building circa 1480. Upper part of tower and east end added 1870"; no font mentioned. The parish web site [www.stmartin.org.uk/tour.html] [accessed 16 May 2019] notes: "There was a previous church here at least as early as 1203. It was originally a chapel under Kendal, which was the mother church for a large part of South Westmorland. The old Parish of Windermere once extended from the Lancashire-Westmorland county boundary, to the south, and northwards to include part of the village of Ambleside. It still includes all of the lake. The earlier church was burnt down in 1480. Of that church there remains only the font, the base of the tower and its low external door. An ancient floor existed five feet below the present, as indicated by the height of the door archway on the west face of the tower. [...] The font is the most visible remaining part of the original church. It has an octagonal bowl carved from sandstone, certainly not local, with roughly carved heads at each alternate angle. The two incised crosses are probably consecration crosses, one carved when the font was first used, and the other at the re-consecration after the fire. Only the bowl is ancient, its stem and base are modern.