Gisburn / Ghisebourne / Ghisburne / Gisburne

INFORMATION

Font ID: 11175GIS
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 11th - 12th century, Norman
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Gisburn
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Address: A59, Gisburn BB7 4HB, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1200 441152
Site Location: West Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the Humber, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located near Settle, in lower Ribblesdale
Historical Region: Hundred of Craven [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: disappeared font?
Font Notes:
There is a multiple-place entry for Gisburn [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SD8248/gisburn/] [accessed 21 June 2025]; it reports a church in it. Noted in Glynne's 1 May 1860 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007): "The font [is] small and poor." The Gisburn Parish & Village web site [www.gisburn.org.uk] informs that "the font is modern 1875, with octagonal bowl, stem, base, and plinth. No trace of the original has been found." This sam source reproduces a quote from 'A history of the village and church of Gisburn' (4th edition, 1978) which reads: "The font is poor and small", that must obviously refer to an earlier font in this church. [NB: the church building goes back to Norman times, but we have no information of the earlier font(s)]

REFERENCES

  • Glynne, Stephen Richard, The Yorkshire notes of Sir Stephen Glynne (1825-1874), Woodbridge: The Boydell Press; Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 2007, p. 188