Church of St. Hilda, font

C17 font. Listed in the churchwarden's accounts in 1675: "Imprimis, pd. Mr Trolopp for ye font, £3 10s od…. Pd in pt for ye cover, £2 os od". And in 1676 "to Mr. Trolopp £2 os od, to Nicholson, £1 12s 5d". And in 1677 "June 29-77 for leding ye font 1s". Mr Trolopp was a master mason from York, later Gateshead, who built the Exchange (Guildhall) at Newcastle, Capheaton and Netherwitton Halls and the New Fort in Holy Island. The font at South Shields is similar to that at Pittington. Both have convex fluted bowls, slender stems (the South Shields example is twisted) and both have a cap between the shaft and bowl, decorated with foliage. In 1876 the font was ejected from the church into the churchyard. After some time it was brought back into the church and fixed into the floor in the south-west angle of the nave. Dimensions: diameter of bowl 2 feet 4 inches, total height 3 feet 8 inches. Pevsner - baluster type font : gadrooned bowl on a twisted column of 1675 by Robert Trollope.