Wendling / Wendlinga

There is an entry for Wendling [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF9313/wendling/] [accessed 14 February 2014], but it mention neither church nor cleric in it. There appear to be two churches here, according to Blomefield (1805-1810); one was the conventual church of a Premonstratensian abbey founded in 1268 and dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, which, at the time of Blomefield's writing in the mid-18th century, was in ruins and its materials were being cannibalised: "most of the very foundation stones being dug up and carried away to mend the roads". White's Directory of 1845 notes: "t was suppressed by a bull of Pope Clement, before the general dissolution, and in 1528, granted to Cardinal Wolsey; its revenues being then valued at £55. 18s. 4d. per annum. The last remains of the ruins and foundations were used some years ago in repairing the roads." The other church, appears first mentioned in Blomefield (ibid.): "In the sixth year of Richard I [i.e., 1195] a fine was levied on the day after St. Alphege's" in relation to the quitclaim over the "right in this town, and advowson of the church" in favour of the abbot of Bury [NB: the sae source notes that the manor here had belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds "in the time of the Confessor" [i.e., King Edward, †1066]. Presumably, then, the parish church here was founded between 1086 and 1195. Blomefield (ibid.) adds: "The Church of Wendling was appropriated to the abbey [...] and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. [...] It is covered with lead and has a square steeple, with 3 bells". The present font is listed in Cautley (1949) and Anderson (1955) as a crude Seven-Sacrament font, the work of a local artist. Noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "A badly preserved and probably never well-carved example of the type with the Seven Sacraments [NB: in their entry for Beeston St. Mary's [aka Beeston-next-Mileham], write of the font cover: "It was here by 1536 because there was a bequest to Wendling in that year to make a font cover like the one at Beeston." [NB: was the cover for Wendling's font ever made?]. Described and illustrated in Knott (2006): "Wendling font is quite unlike any of the others in the series, because it has been carved with what appears to be a local hand. It may well even have been done by someone who saw the one at neighbouring Dereham, and thought to themselves, hmmm, I could have a go at that. If so, it is not a copy, but in its way quite unusual. It may or may not have come from this church originally, but it is now set on a 19th century pillar. I see no reason to think that it was originally in the local Abbey church, because if it was then I think it would be of higher quality. That said, it is a fascinating and delightful piece of early 16th century folk art. On church sculptures of this time you can sometimes see the beginnings of what would have been an immensely flowery, fruity English Renaissance - the 1544 font at Walsoken is a case in point. But there is nothing like that here. Pevsner says of it that it is badly preserved and probably never well-carved. Mortlock, a kinder man, observes that the font is notable for the crudity and engaging ham-fistedness of its carving. Wendling font is one of the last of the seven sacrament fonts in England. Probably only Walsoken is later. It is curious, then, that it does not look like the result of rich patronage. The panels of many other fonts are formulaic, as if there were a given way of representing the Mass, the Last Rites, and particularly Ordination and Matrimony. Here, that does not seem to be the case. Anti-clockwise from the east, then, we have Matrimony; unusually, the couple are kneeling with their hands joined. Ordination (NE) shows the Bishop with his back to us, and the ordinand kneeling facing us; I do not recall seeing this arrangement elsewhere. Mass (N) shows the Priest elevating the host behind a small stone altar; this panel is very close to the organ, and is difficult to see and photograph. Next, Confession, (NW) it must be, but uniquely the confessor is shown standing giving absolution to the kneeling confessee, and this panel has been wrongly interpreted as Communion in one text. Confirmation (W) has been completely defaced. Baptism (SW) is the most conventional of the arrangements. The odd panel out is the Baptism of Christ (S), perhaps the best of the panels, a dynamic arrangement where John confers the Baptism on a Christ standing in a pillar of water as a dove descends, as on the font at Fincham. Finally, Last Rites (SE) is conventional in its form, but very simply rendered, with the bed of the dying man low down in the panel and the Priest leaning over him administering the sacrament as two other figures look on." The plain octagonal pedestal base appears modern. [NB: we have no information on the font of the original 12th-century (?) parish here; we do not know whether the church of the Premonstratensian abbey had of font in it or not].