Hurworth / Hurdewurda / Hurworth-on-Tees

Fordyce (1857) reports: "The baptismal font is a plain circular bason", but gives no indication of its date. Noted in the Victoria County History (Durham, vol. 3, 1928) as an ancient site, with a fragment of a pre-Conquest cross discovered there in 1871, but the present church is modern and "the font and all fittings are modern". The modern font appears Victorian, consisting of an octagonal basin decorated with encircled symbols on the sides, raised on a broad central shaft and slender outer colonnettes. The British Listed Buildings database [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-350409-font-bowl-and-stem-2-metres-north-of-chu] [accessed 14 March 2012] reports a "font bowl and stem" two metres north of the All Saints' church: "Font bowl and stem. Probably C13 bowl on a C17 stem. Sandstone. Cup-shaped circular bowl with drain hole near base. 1.0-metre tall square-plan stem has chamfered base on flat plinth; wider, cyma-moulded section with roll-moulded top at junction with bowl. Included for group value." [NB: we have no information on the earlier font here]