Stoney Middleton / Stony Middleton

Cox (1875-1877) informs of a visit to this church by Mr. Rhodes "some sixty years ago" and Rhodes description of the font he saw: "an old stone font, of a very elegant font, and carved in a good Gothic style. It stands in a corner of the churchyard, overshadowed by some light trees. It is difficult to conjecture why so graceful a piece of workmanship should be cast, like useless lumber, into an obscure corner, rapidly to moulder away, when, by being removed into the interior of the church, it might be long preserved , an ornament to the building that gave it shelter" [thge quote is footnoted "Rhodes' Peak scenery, pt. i, p. 31"]. Cox (ibid.) himself adds: "This ancient font was happily destroyed at the time of the alterations in 1861, but from an accurate drawing of it, taken a few years previously, we gather that it was of octagon shape and of excellent design, very closely resembling the one at the mother of Hathersage [...] From the notes of Bassano, taken in 1710, we learn that it bore the arms of Eyre, as is also the case with the one at Hathersage. There can be no doubt that this fine old font was given to the church by Robert Eyre". Cox (ibid.) states that the font that appears in Bateman's Antiquities p. 211 as an illustration for Hathersage "is in reality a sketch of the font of Stony Middleton" [sic], which closely resembled the font at Hathersage. Unfortunately, adds Cox, "it no longer exists".