West Lynn / Lena / Lyn St. Peter's / West Lenne

There are five entries for 'Lynn' in the Domesday book under the variant spellings "Lena" and "Lun", but no mention of a cleric or church in it. Blomefield (1805-1810), who argues at length about the origin of the toponym, notes that "Lynn [...] from the Conqueror's book of Domesday, made in the year 1085, at which time, and in the Confessor's, this town, with the townships or hamlets of West, North, and South Lynn, we find to be all included under the general name of Lena, and Lun, the distinction of West, North. and South not being till some centuries after". “It has been an idle tradition, that this was, in ancient days, the grand port or chief town; and on that account is frequently called Old Lynn. I have observed that in the Book of Domesday, Lena was the name of what is now called the Burgh of Lynn of South Lenn, and of West and North Lenn; and that the chief port was then at the Burgh, is certain, from the customs and lastage of that port which then belonged to the Bishop of Ely, and the lord of Rising, and which continued so for may centuries, and still belong to the said Burgh; this place was only an hamlet belonging to the said burgh; the first mention that I find of it by the name of Lyn St. Peter's, is in the deed sans date, abovementioned [...] The Church is dedicated to St. Peter [...] It is covered with lead, the chancel with reed, and has a square tower with three bells." The present font here is listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Seven-sacrament group. Noted in Cautley (1949). Studied in Nichols (1994): order of scenes [R->L]: 1)Baptism; 2)Extreme Unction; 3)Marriage; 4)Orders; 5)"Pity of the Father" [Crucifixion]; 6)Eucharist; 7)Penance; 8)Confirmation. Nichols (ibid.) reports "traces of red colour, some figurers patched in contrasting material", and dates it to ca. 1470. In Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Font. With the Seven Sacraments. Simple straightforward carving. The eight scene is of Christ enthroned." Described and fully illustrated in Knott (2005): "The font is a delight – the most primitive of the series I’ve seen, the figures like cartoon characters. It has been repaired with darker cement, so you can see what is original and what isn’t, and it is actually relatively unvandalised. A curiosity on it is that the Priest hearing confession is wearing a cowl. This may mean he was a religious, but it doesn't half make him look Mother Teresa. The Mass panel, seen from the side on, is absolutely crowded with figures – fascinating. In the Baptism panel, the baby is held upside down. The eighth panel depicts the Holy Trinity (not, as Pevsner has it, 'Christ Enthroned', or Mortlock's 'God the Father')." [NB: Knott is probably right, as the scene resembles traditional representations of the Trinity, with God the Father enthroned and holding the crucified Christ in the presence of the Holy Ghost; the cross and Christ have been obliterated but there are traces of the general outline still left in the scene to justify Knott's identification]. The stone of the font appears to be a soft fine-grained sandstone, but we have no confirmation of its composition.