West Walton / Waltuna

There are four entries in the Domesday survey for "Waltuna" [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF4713/west-walton/] [accessed 29 November 2013] but, despite having 179 households, neither church nor cleric is mentioned in any of them. Blomefield (1805-1810) notes that "Henry II. by his charter, sans date, granted and confirmed to the monks of St. Pancrase of Lewes, all the lands, tenures and churches they had in the time of King Henry his grandfather: A (Alured) Bishop of Worcester, and Henry, son of Gerold the chamberlain, witnesses", so that if West Walton church was included, it would have existed sometime between 1100 and 1135, and certainly between 1158 and 1160, the time of Alured's [aka Alfred] episcopal office [he was consecrated in April 1158 and died in July 1160]. The church is described in Blomefield (ibid.): "The Church of West Walton is dedicated to St. Mary, it has a curious free-stone tower, standing south of the church, about 22 yards, in which are 5 bells, a nave, a north and south isle, all covered with lead, with a chancel, and consists of two medieties [...] one in the patronage of the Bishop of Ely, the other in the prior and convent of Lewes". Blomefield (ibid.) names the first recorded rector of it: "William de Askeby occurs rector in the 24th of Edward I" [i.e., 1296]. A late Decorated baptismal font is listed for this church in Hutton (1957). In Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Perp[endicular], octagonal, with arched panels to the stem and quatrefoils to the bowl." Illustrated in Knott (2006). Octagonal basin ornamented with a large quatrefoil on each side; the slender stem of the base is also octagonal with a tall cinquefoil arch on each side; the narrow lower base splayed at the bottom; the whole is mounted on a three-step plinth. The wooden font cover is octagonal and flat, with moulded edges, and has a large finial in the shape of a boat's helm. [NB: the original church here dates at least from the mid-12th century but we have ni information on the font from it].