Knaith / Cheneide

There is an entry for Knaith [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SK8384/knaith/] [accessed 25 September 2015], but there is no mention of cleric or church in it, other than the lord in 1066 and 1086, the abbey of Stow St. Mary's, and the tenant-in-chief in 1086, the bishop of Lincoln St. Mary's. A font here is illustrated in Simpson (1828), who describes it in the most complimentary terms: "This very splendid Font is we think altogether the handsomest we ever saw. The heads are admirably executed and all vary in design; in the deep hollow under the bowl. Its situation is in the middle of the chapel at the west end. The whole is in good preservation". The font is depicted in Simpson raised on a polygonal plinth. The upper basin side has a head at each angle plus one in the middle of the side, hence twenty-four altogether, but no two are alike, as Simpson had noted. The sides of the basin are ornamented with large Ogee trefoil motifs; this motif is also repeated on the stem of the octagonal base; two iron staples from the cover lock are still visible on the upper rim surface. The upper angles of the underbowl chamfer have again a singular head on each, all different; in the inner recess of the chamfer, each side is ornamented with a ball-flower motif, as mentioned in Simpson. The lower base is splayed, octagonal and plain. Described and illustrated in Gailhabaud (1850) as a beautiful and much reproduced [i.e., illustrated] baptismal font of the 14th century. Described in Cox-Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy example of Decorated period fonts. In Pevsner, Harris and Antram (1989): "A good Dec[orated[ piece with typical panels with cusped ogee curves. Friezes of heads below and above them. The ogee panels also on the stem." [NB: the Knaith parish church and the Heynings priory church may have been located almost side by side, although some sources appear to indicate that they were one and the same].