Medomsley

Surtees (1820) notes: "The font is an old stone basin with round mouldings, resting on a stone shaft and square pedestal." Ditto in Mackenzie (1834). Thre is no mention of this font in an architectural assessment of January 2001 by Peter F. Ryder [http://www.durham.anglican.org/userfiles/file/Durham%20Website/Diocese%20and%20Admin/Care%20of%20Churches/Archaeological%20Assessments/Medomsley.pdf] [accessed 3 December 2009] reports: "The Font of 1877 is ashlar, and is octagonal, being modelled on a common 15th-century North-of-England type (eg Newcastle St Nicholas, Chester le Street); its arms are of past and present local landowners, Felton, Hunter, Bishop baring, Carr, Bowes, Baker and Surtees (Bartlett 1951,8). Lying on the plinth beside it is a large octofoil stone bowl, which again looks of 19th-century date; was this made for the piscina-like recess in the chancel but never installed? Interestingly, the drawings accompanying the 1877 faculty show what appears to be this bowl in position on the pre-restoration version, and removed on the post-restoration , so is it a mid-19th century piece removed by the restorers, perhaps on the grounds of architectural incongruity?" [NB: the church fabric is said to date from the 12th century; had a main expansion in the 14th, and a restoration in the 19th century]