Low Dinsdale / Detnisale / Digneshale / Dinsdale on Tees / Dirneshala / Ditleshal / Ditneshal / Ditteneshale / Low Dinsdale / Nether Dinsdale

There are two entries for [Over] Dinsdale [Grange] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/NZ3411/over-dinsdale-grange/] [accessed 14 May 2018], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. The Victoria County History (Durham, vol. 3, 1928) notes: "Norman de Dinsdale, parson of the church, is mentioned among the contributors to the aids from churches in 1194–5 [...] The site is an ancient one, and fragments of pre-Conquest sculptured stones, including two cross-heads, the lower part of a cross-shaft, and half of a hog-back stone have been found. [...] No part of the present structure, however, is older than about 1196 [...] The font and pulpit are of stone, and date from 1876. The old font, a plain shallow circular bowl roughly wrought to octagonal shape, stands on a plain circular pyramidal stem at the east end of the aisle. It appears to be of 12th-century date. [...] The octagonal step is apparently of later date." The VCH entry (ibid.) adds: "It is illustrated in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Newcastle (Ser. 3), iv, 242. See also Trans. Arch. Soc. Dur. and Northumb. vi, 248." The British Listed Buildings [ww.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-350447-church-of-st-john-the-baptist-low-dinsda] [accessed 13 March 2012] reports a 19th-century font in this church, and "possibly C11 font with hexagonal bowl in aisle." [NB: the old re-cut font is neither octagonal or hexagonal; two of the sides from the original square basin remain, more or less; the other sides have been hacked to a quasi-rounded shape; the work has been done very crudely and we have not been able to locate the inscription on it].