Barley

INFORMATION

Font ID: 11911BAR
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century, Late Norman
Workshop/Group/Artisan: William Butterfield
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Margaret, Barley
Church Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17554695
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Margaret of Antioch [aka Margaret the Virgin, Marina]
Church Address: Church End, Royston SG8 8JP, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 1763 848699
Site Location: Hertfordshire, East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located off the B1368, 5 km ESE of Royston
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of St Albans
Historical Region: Hundred of Edwinstree [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: disappeared font? (the font of the Norman or pre-Conquest church here) -- 19th-century Victorian replacement
Font Notes:
There are six entries for this Barley in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TL4038/barley/] [accessed 27 June 2025], one of which, in the tenancy of Hardwin of Scales, reports a priest, but not a church, in it. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1977) as a baptismal font "by Butterfield" [NB: William Buttefield (1814-1900), pioneer of High Victorian Gothic revival architecture, was responsible for the restoration of St. Margaret's -- Pevsner & Cherry (ibid.) note that the tower is 12th-century, with a typical Norman arch; we have no information on the original font of this church]

REFERENCES

  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, Hertfordshire, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977, p. 88-89