Austerfield Church details

“Austerfield is a typical north country village. Less picturesque than such midland and southern hamlets as Brington, Ecton and Penshurst, these northern villages, with their steep-roofed, narrow-gabled houses of brick and stone, substantial, and built to keep out the winter storms, which are severe in this part of England, with no attempt at ornament, seem in a way characteristic of the sturdy uncompromising race that sprang from this soil, and was destined to make so deep an impression upon the land of its adoption.” (p. 42)

“[...] with a firm determination to investigate this chapter of the history of the Pilgrim Fathers, we turned to the parish church, where we found a baptismal font quite large enough for the immersion of William Bradford or any other child. This handsome stone font is he one from which the son of William Bradford and Alice, his wife, was baptized [on] March 19th, 1589, as is recorded upon a tablet on the wall of the church.

A beautiful little stone church is this, somewhat disfigured by modern decorations, but holding its own in the grace of its columns, arches and attractive church porch. It was this church that William Bradford left, despite the strong opposition of his relatives and neighbors [sic], to join the Puritan congregation at the home of his friend, Brewster, at Scrooby.” (p. 44)