Billingham

Mackenzie (1834) notes: "The font is decorated with a beautiful spire of wood work", referring, of course, to the font cover. Billings (1846) writes: "curious early [sic] English font, with its Elizabethan cover, which, although it does not harmonise in style with the font, is highly picturesque and ornamental." Reported in Murray (1873) as an Early English font with "a tall richly carved Elizabethan cover." The Victoria County History (Durham, vol. 3, 1928) informs: "The font, which stands at the west end of the nave, is contemporary with the south arcade, and consists of a circular stone bowl on a moulded circular shaft and base and octagonal plinth with corner ornaments. The lower part of the bowl immediately above the shaft and the upper part of the base are carved with conventional flat leaf-ornament, and there is a 17th-century carved oak pyramidal cover." Pevsner (1983) notes the font cover: "Probably early C17, with the usual short blank arcades and some faintly Gothic features, not directly related to Cosin's work. The steep polygonal pyramid above has wavy crocketing similar to that on the Darlington cover. [Billingham belonged to Darlington]." The font and cover are illustrated in an old engraving [source unknown] of ca. 1844. [NB: according to the VCH [cf. supra] the church goes back probably to the mid-11th century, before the Conquest, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]. The church of St. John (Haverton Hill) and St. Peter (Wolviston) are moden, of the 19th century.