Broughton / Brocton / Nroughton nr. Kettering / Bructon / Bruton / Burtone

There are two entries for this Broughton [variant speling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP8375/broughton/] [accessed 25 October 2014], but neither mentions a cleric or church in it. Simpson (1828) writes: "This is a Font of considerable beauty, and not very common design; it is in fair preservation". Noted in Whellan (1849): "The font, which stands in the centre of the chancel, is ancient and interesting." Listed in Cox-Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy example of 15th-century fonts. The Victoria County History (Northampton, vol. 4, 1937) notes: "The original church was a 12th-century aisleless building [...] The church was restored in 1854. [...] The late-14th-century font has an elaborately carved octagonal bowl, and pedestal with traceried panels and angle shafts." Noted in Mee (1945): "The chief treasure of the church is the lovely 15th century font with a band of foliage round the bowl, linked with floral decoration of the finials and canopies of eight recesses in the pedestal, all enriched with window tracery." In Pevsner & Cherry (1973): "Octagonal, with panelled stem and nodding ogee arches against the bowl; C14?" The octagonal mounted font is of the type in which the lower sides of the basin are arcaded and overhang the thinner stem of the base [as, for instance, in the fonts at Yaxham and Hitchin]. The upper sides of the basin are ornamented with foliage motif; the arches of the bttom of the sides are Gothic, cusped and crocketted; the ends where the sides meet appear to have human heads, at least some of them. The sides of the stem of the base have multiple-arch windows, and the buttresses at the angles are quite pronounced. The lower part of the base has assorted motifs on its panels. A note in the web site www.beebehistoryco.uk identifies the donor of the font as the Duke of Buccleuch.