Ellerburn / Alrebrune / Ellerton / Elrebrune / Elreburne

INFORMATION

Font ID: 11065ELL

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [basin only], Medieval [composite]

Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Hilda, Ellerburn

Font Location in Church: Reported inside the church ca. 1868

Church Patron Saint(s): St. Hilda [aka Hild, Hilde]

Church Address: Pickering YO18 7LL, United Kingdom

Site Location: North Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the Humber, England, United Kingdom

Directions to Site: Located off the A170, just to the N of Thornton-le-Dale, 4 km NE of Pickering

Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of York

Historical Region: Hundred of Dic [in Domesday]

Additional Comments: altered font / composite font [base is modern]

Font Notes: Click to view

There are two entries for Ellerburn [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE8484/ellerburn/] [accessed 20 June 2025]; neither of them mentions priest or church in it. Whellan (1859) notes that the foundations of St. Hilda's are Anglo-Saxon ''but it has been repaired in different styles. It was thoroughly renovated in 1800. The font is old and plain''. The National Gazetteer of 1868 records that the church of St. Hilda "contains an ancient font." The Victoria County History (North Riding, vol. 2, 1923) remarks that ''The fabric of the church is apparently of early Norman date, but the unusual height of the nave walls may be indicative of a pre-Conquest origin'' and notes that the font ''is a rough circular bowl, probably of the 12th century, on a modern base.'' There is no mention of a font in Pevsner (1966), but Morris (1931) notes a "rude circular font" in this church. [NB: the church dates from ca. 1050, but it appears to have replaced an even earlier (wooden?) structure]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

Font Shape: round, mounted

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

REFERENCES

The National Gazetteer: a Topographical Dictionary of the British Isles, London: Virtue & Co., 1868, www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Ellerburn/ Ellerburn68.html
Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Morris, Joseph Ernest, The North Riding of Yorkshire, London: Methuen & Co., 1931, p. 154
Whellan & Co., T., History and topography of the city of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire, embracing a […], Beverley: printed for the publishers by John Green, Market Place, 1859, p. 894 / [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-8wHAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA8-PA893&lpg=RA8-PA893&dq=ebberston+church+font&source=web&ots=dasZyVodko&sig=lJUwMy-wZpIVTB8qWdeRzaah_cM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PRA8-PA894,M1] [accessed 6 July 2008]