Tunstall nr. Borden / Dunstall / Tunestelle

There is an entry for this Tunstall [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TQ8961/tunstall/] [accessed 3 May 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Hasted (1798) writes: "The church, which is dedicated to St. John Baptist, consists of three isles and a chancel, to which has been added a small chapel on the north side of it. It has a tower steeple at the west end, in which there is a peal of five bells." Glynne (1877) describes the font he saw at the time he visited this church: "The font seems early, the bowl is cylindrical, with trefoil niches moulded, on shafts of rather Romanesque appearance". That font is no longer in the church, and Glynne would have visited the church before, or during, the mid-19th century restoration by R.C. Hussey. The report by Tim Tatton-Brown (1996) [www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/TUS.htm] [accessed 7 September 2013] to the Historical and Archaeological Survey of the Dioces of Canterbury, notes: "Part of a Rood Screen, a corbel for the north side of the Rood beam survey, and the medieval font (mentioned by Glynne) were unfortunately removed in the 1850s when whole interior was given expensive new pews, pulpit, font etc. R.C. Hussey's restoration started in the chancel in 1848-50, and then moved on to the nave". The present font is modern, probably of the Hussey restoration, and consists of an octagonal basin with floral motifs inscribed in quatrefoils, fleurons at the underbowl angles; raised on an octagonal-to-square pedestal base with window tracery on the sides and ball motifs on the transitional part to square. Octagonal wooden cover with metal ring handle; also modern. [NB: we have no information on the whereabouts of the font of the medieval church here].