Belgrave / Merdegrave

A church is documented here by 1081 [cf. infra], but it is not mentioned in either of the two entries for Belgrave [variant spelling] found in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SK5907/belgrave/] [accessed 27 July 2015]. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a baptismal font of the Early English period here. The Victoria County History (Leicester, vol. 4, 1958) notes: "The church of Belgrave with its tithes and eleven virgates was granted to the Norman abbey of St. Evroul (Orne), by Hugh de Grentemesnil at some date before 1081. [...] About 1220 it was stated that the patron of the church was the Abbot of St. Evroul, and that the two chapels of Birstall and South Thurmaston, which Hugh had also given to the abbey, were still attached to the church. [...] The main part of the present church dates from the 13th century, although some features from the 12th-century church have been preserved, including the south doorway and the two lower stages of the tower. [...] The 13th-century font stands in the west end of the nave. It has a circular bowl, supported in six engaged columns separated by dog-tooth ornament." Noted in Pevsner (1984): "Font. E[arly] E[nglish] style, on a stem consisting of six shafts with vertical bands of heavy dogtooth between them, new or renewed in 1857."