Terrington St. Clement / Turingtonea / Tyrington St. Clement

There are two entries for Terrington in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/terrington-st-clement-and-st-john/] [accessed 28 November 2013], neither of which mentions church or cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) states: "This town ["Tyrington"], though very considerable in its bounds and lands, is not mentioned in the book of Domesday [...] That the town of Tyrington was in the Saxon age, long before the Conquest, appears from a grant of Godric, brother to Ædnoth, abbot of Ramsey, about the year 970, who gave to that abbey his lands, in Turingtonea, on condition that Ædnoth should free it from the service called Heregeat; [...] which was wont to be paid to the lord byfree heirs after their father's decease, now called a Hariot. By this it appears that the aforesaid Godric had, about a century before the conquest, a lordship in this town of Tyrington." The earliest mention in Blomefield (ibid.) of a church here is in relation to an issue on the expansion of the Bishop of Ely's manor and how it affected "the patronage of the church of Tyrington, and of the chapel of St. John's", an issue which was raised in the fifth year of Henry III's reign, 1221. The list of rectors in Blomefield (ibid.), however, shows the first two recorded, "Luke de Flete, tem. Edward I. rector. Brancalco de Lavanne, occurs rector 24th of Edward I.", that is, 1272+, and the first vicar recorded is from 1266: "Semannus occurs vicar." Of the church of St. Clement, Blomefield (ibid.) writes: "The Church of Tyrington is dedicated to St. Clement, and is a very beautiful, large, and noble building of free-stone, in the form of a cathedral church [...] The top of the font is neatly carved; it opens, and on the pannels are painted our Saviour and the four Evangelists. Voce pater natus, corpore flamen ave. Mat. 3"; also included is a description of several shields carved "On the battlements of the south isle of this church", one of which, "sable, a chevron, between three crosses, patonce, or, Fordham Bishop of Ely, in whose time this church seems to be built"; this bishop would be John Fordham (ca.1340-1425) [http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/37607] [accessed 28 November 2013], so the church built in his time would be the present one, that would have replaced an earlier one that existed in Henry III's time [cf. supra]. The font here is noted in Cotman (1838): as a "fine font" with a "lofty & gorgeous font-cover" [NB: Cotman uses spelling 'Tyrington' for this locality]. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports: "the font is elaborately sculptured". Bond (1908) writes: "The best example is the seventeenth century cover of Terrington St Clement, Norfolk, which has well-preserved paintings of the Baptism and Temptation of Our Lord". Bond (ibid.) describes the cover as a fine Post-Reformation example of the type he calls 'Floor Buffet': "it rests on the floor, not on the rim; and thus cases up the font completely", and cites one of the inscriptions [cf. the 2nd in the inscriptions area below] as a "curious pentameter [...] an allusion to the Baptism of Our Lord" (ibid. [NB: although Bond describes the cover as being of the "floor buffet" type, it is actually of the "rim buffet" type, since it sits right on the upper rim of the basin - cf. Cautley's illustration in the Images area of this entry]. James (1930) states that "the upper or spire-part [is] mediæval, the lowest stor[e]y changed to Jacobean with classical pillars. It opens, and within are seventeenth-century paintings of the Evangelists, the Baptism of Christ, and the Temptation. The Baptism is accompanied by the verse: 'Voce Pater, Natus corpore, Flamen ave -- Mat. 3 (i.e. at the Baptism the Father was manifested by the Voice, the Son by His bodily presence, the Spirit by the Dove)." In Pevsner & Wilson's (1999): 15th-century octagonal font with some tracery and cusping on the basin; the base is also octagonal with half-columns at the arris; very narrow plinth with equally small priest's standing stone. The impressive cover is described by Pevsner & Wilson (ibid.) as "probably Laudian Gothic of the early 17th cent. and of unusual interest. Lower part opening with doors is Jacobean with clusters of three marbled Tuscan columns, the upper part a tall Gothic canopy; paintings inside of landscape with scenes, including Baptism of Christ". The basin sides of the font alternate the ones ornamented with a window of double trefoil arch, with the other four sides which have a shield motif in the centre of an octagonal window. Jenkins (1999), who illustrates the font and the open cover, writes: "Pride of place among the furnishings goes to the beguiling 17th-century font cover. The body is in the form of a tiny round church with classical columns, painted blue but rising to a pure Gothic canopy. The font itself is reached through hinged doors, the inner faces of which carry paintings of the Baptism and Temptation in ethereal landscapes." The bottom of the paintings has Latin texts [cf. Inscription area]. Described and illustrated in Cautley (1949) with date of the 16th century. Knott (2005) mentions Mortlock's comment about the paintings being perhaps Flemish and not intended originally for the inside of a font cover. The font-cover is noted and illustrated in Howard & Crossley (1919).