Giggleswick / Gingclesuuic

INFORMATION

Font ID: 11174GIG
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 14th - 15th century, Decorated? / Perpendicular?
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Alkelda, Giggleswick
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W end of the nave
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Alkelda [aka Athilda]
Church Address: Stable Cottages, 26 Church St, Giggleswick, Settle BD24 0BE, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1729 825955
Site Location: West Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the Humber, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B6480, E of te A65, 2 km W of Settle, 12 km from Kirby Lonsdale
Historical Region: Hundred of Craven [in Domesday]
Font Notes:
There is an entry for Giggleswick [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SD8164/giggleswick/] [accessed 21 June 2025]; it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Noted in Glynne's 17 August 1846 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007): "The font has a small octagonal bowl with a fine lofty Gothic wood cover suspended with a pulley, the gift of Reverend [Rowland] Ingram, Vicar, 1820 [recte 1840]." Smith (1881) notes the inscription on the font cover: "Antiquum Infra Fontum Posuit Ornavit Rowland Ingram, M.A., Vicarius. Anno Dom. M.DCCXV." Noted in Morris (1932): "Plain font -- Dec[orated] or Perp[endicular]. At W of nave."

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 546564 5991745
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 54.07181, -2.2884
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 54° 4′ 18.52″ N, 2° 17′ 18.24″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Latin
Inscription Location: on the font cover
Inscription Text: "Antiquum Infra Fontum Posuit Ornavit Rowland Ingram, M.A., Vicarius. Anno Dom. M.DCCXV."
Inscription Notes: [cf. FontNotes]
Inscription Source: [cf. FontNotoes]

LID INFORMATION

Date: 1715? / ca. 1820/1840?
Material: wood
Apparatus: yes; pulley
Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

  • Glynne, Stephen Richard, The Yorkshire notes of Sir Stephen Glynne (1825-1874), Woodbridge: The Boydell Press; Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 2007, p. 185
  • Morris, Joseph Ernest, The West Riding of Yorkshire, London: Methuen & Co., 1932, p. 227
  • Smith, William, Old Yorkshire, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1881, p. 122