Skipsea

No individual entry found for Skipsea in the Domesday survey. A font here is noted in Glynne's 27 July 1867 visit to this church, in Butler (2007): "The font has a plain round bowl, on large circular stem", but Butler's annotation (ibid.) of Glynne's entry remarks that "this sentence is added in a later hand […] Glynne may have obtained the information [on the font] from a guidebook, or a topographical dictionary […] However this font was replaced in the 1866 restoration." [cf. infra] The Ecclesiologist (vol. XXVIII, 1867: 287), in its report on 'Church restoration in Yorkshire in 1866', notes: "The font, also of stone, with marble inlaid, is the gift of the Ven. Archdeacon Long", and dates the old church back to the 13th century. The entry for Spkipsea in Bulmer's Directory of 1892 notes already a new font: "All Saints, is an ancient edifice of stone, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles of architecture […] The font was the gift of the late Archdeacon Long" [NB: according to Sheahan & Whellan (1857) the Venerable Archdeacon Long was pastorally active in Yorkshire around the year 1855]. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York East Riding, vol. 7, 2002) notes: "Skipsea church was recorded as the church of the castle, evidently of Skipsea, c. 1100. (fn. 525) The living was a rectory until 1310 [...] The dedication to ALL SAINTS or HALLOWS was recorded c. 1500. [...] The church seems to have been rebuilt in the 14th century, following appropriation. [...] The font, comprising a large, circular cup on an octagonal shaft, may be 12th-century." English Heritage [Listing NGR: TA1655854978] notes: "Church. Cll nave and chancel with later additions and alterations including C15 tower, aisles and clerestory, and additions and restorations of c1856-60 by Fowler of Louth including south porch, north vestry and arcades", but it does not mention a font. The present font is of 19th-century but its design harks back at font designs of the late-Norman or Early-English periods, and consists of a quasi cylindrical basin decorated with four quatrefoil-in-a-circle panels with an inscribed agate ball, all very Victorian, raised on a moulded round pedestal, a quadrangular lower base and plinth, both of these with chamfered angles. The round flat cover appears contemporary. [NB: we have no information now [November 2019] on the whereabouts of the old font]