Skelton-cum-Newby / Newby Hall / Skelton on Ure

Baptismal font consisting of a white marble basin of the cushion-capital type [square with rounded sides], raised on a broad central shaft and four outer colonnettes, all of these with capitals and bases; the sides of the basin are decorated with angels, lion head and foliage; the spandrels of the cushion sides have gilded foliage; some of the basin motifs are also gilded; the centre shaft is purple, the outer ones green, the multi-coloured arrangement typical of Victorian fonts of this design. 'In memoriam' running inscription around the upper basin sides [cf. Inscription area for details]. The Churches Conservation Trust [www.visitchurches.org.uk] informs that this church was built in 1871-1876 "as an extravagant memorial to a young man, Frederick Vyner", and that his mother commissioned William Burges, the Victorian architect, "to build this church in the grounds of her home at Newby Hall." Commenting on the style of the church, the same source adds: "The design is based on mediaeval French church in architecture, but with Burges's unique interpretation." The tall wooden cover is an airy structure of open-work carving with lots of crocketed pinnacles over Ogee arches, containing inside a polychrome sculptured scene of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan. [NB: the dead child, Mary Sarah Riobinson, to whose memory the font is dedicated, had with the Hall and its occupants, but the dates of the dead child pre-date the building of the church by almost two decades -- 'Robinson' was the original name of the cousin who inhereted Newby Hall from the Weddell family wh had bought the Hall in 1748; Robinson then changed his family name to Weddell [source: www.newbyhall.co.uk] [accessed 18 August 2006]].