Malton No. 2 / New Malton

No individual entry for this Malton found in the Domesday survey. Glynne's 11 August 1827 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007) reports: "The font is circular with some panelling, but of indifferent workmanship." Listed in Simpson (1828) as Early English. Whellan (1859) reports that, like parts of the earlier Norman fabric, ''the font, too, has been chiselled and modernised''. Described in the section on 'Antiquarian News' in The Antiquary (vol. VIII, July-December 1883: 227): "The font has a circular bowl, on a square base, and the former bears ornaments of the Jacobite period." The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (North Riding of Yorkshire, vol. 1, 1914) notes: "The nave is the earliest part of the church, and has arcades which date from the middle of the 12th century. The width of the south aisle suggests that it is of the same date as its arcade; the north aisle was probably rebuilt at some subsequent date, but this and most of the later history of the church have been completely obscured by modern restorations. [...] At the west end of the south aisle is a font of uncommon design, probably of 12th-century date. The outside of the bowl is sculptured with incised patterns in four compartments, and stands on a square chamfered base, beneath which is a modern plinth. Traces of colour are still to be seen on the incised ornament of the bowl." Noted in Morris (1931): Huge, perfectly plain, circular Norm[an] font, with 17th-cent. cover." Pevsner (1985), however, writes: "Font. Circular bowl with a band of decoration; not Norman. It may be Jacobean." [NB: are they referring to the same font? -- the town is known simply as Malton, or "New Malton" to distinguish it from Old Malton, nearby, to the east]. The font as it exists now [2006] is a composite of three parts, at least two of which, the basin and the stem of the base, appear to have been drastically altered from their original shape. The basin is round at the sides, although the tracery-like decoration is done in four panels, as if the basin were square; the upper level of the underbowl is round, but the lower is square [may have been re-cut at this end?]; all plain;the stem of the base is square with the angles chamfered and showing on the chamfer part of the original decoration, a thin roll moulding across; the lower basi is also quadrangular, and may have been re-cut from its original shape as wll. The whole is raised on a modern (?) plinth. It is difficult to forward a dating for such an altered piece [if indeed a piece!] but the decorative pattern may possibly be 15th-century. The wooden font cover is dodecagonal, to add yet another un-matched factor to the already confusing equation, flat and decorated with ironwork.