Newton / Newton-by-Castle Acre / Newton by Castle Acre / Castleacre / Nieutuna / Noutuna

There are two entries for this Newton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TF8315/newton/] [accessed 24 August 2019] neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) reports that the church of Newton was given to the priory of Castleacre by a "William de Bosevilla [...] In the reign of King Henry I [i.e., 1100-1135] [...] and Eborard Bishop of Norwich confirmed the said grant. [...] The church of Newton is dedicated to All-Saints, has a body or nave with a chancel of flint and boulder covered with thatch; [...] between the nave and chancel is a low four-square tower with quoins of freestone, with a wooden cap or cover; through the arch of this tower is the passage between the nave and chancel, in the tower hang two bells, and the staircase served also for the rood-loft, part of which is still standing. This is the only church in the deaneries of Cranwich and Fincham built in this collegiate or cathedral fashion. The old church of Westminster, built by the Confessor, [...] is generally said to have been the first that was erected in England of this model, and it is very probable that this was built about the same age, having the face of great antiquity, being a low, dark, and heavy pile; the whole length is about 67 feet, breadth about 16." Blomefield (ibid.) names "Robert de Creic" first vicar here, in 1227, and reports "There is service here once in a fortnight only; the church is in a very bad condition." The printed church guidebook [St. Mary and All Saints, Newton-by-Castle Acre, [unpublished], p.[3]] notes on the present font: "The font is 15th century and octagonal in shape". It is also listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins. Not mentioned in Pevsner & Wilson (1999). Illustrated in Knott (2004). There are some mouldings on the top and bottom of the octagonal base; the basin was broken and has been unskillfully repaired. On an octagonal plinth. The wooden cover is a modern stylised version of the four-rib Jacobean design, but appears to have another cover of the flat type as well (which may be part of the other). [NB: we have no information on the font of the original [pre-Conquest?- church here].