Stanwick St. John / Stanwegg / Stanwigge / Staynwigges / Steinewegges / Steinueges / Stenuueghe / Stenwege

No individual entry fount for Stanwick St John in the Domesday survey. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (North York Riding, vol. 1, 1914) notes: "The church in Aldbrough mentioned in 1086 [...] must have been the church of St. John's Stanwick, as no other church is mentioned in any ancient records. Probably Aldbrough was the head of the Saxon parish, and lost its prestige in its decay. [...] The pointed chancel arch of two chamfered orders rests on semicircular shafts having octagonal moulded capitals, one of which appears to be original but re-worked and of the 13th century. [...] The registers begin in 1667. [...] The church of St. John the Baptist, almost entirely rebuilt in 1868". There is no mention of a font in the VCH entry for this parish. Noted in Morris (1931): "Tabernacled font-cover (?Jacobean)." Pevsner (1985) notes the font cover: "Early C17? With two tiers of traceried arches, pinnacles, and spire." Clifford (2004) cites a 1807 drawing prepared by the churchwardens of St. John the Baptist's and now at the County Records Office in his brief history of the church [www.stanwick-st-john.co.uk]; "The font is shown in the drawing in the same position which it occupies today, but things aren't quite as straightforward as that. I understand from Churchwarden Willy Lax that until the end of the last war the font stood under the tower, close to where the Viking Cross stands today. The carved cover was so heavy that it took three men to remove it, and Mr. Lax's father suggested that if it was removed to its present position a rope and pulley mechanism could be fixed to the roof of the south aisle. This was donr and the font moved and rebuilt, necessitating some redressing and replacement of stone, which accounts for the font itself looking new, whilst the cover, although much restored, is 17th century."