South Elmham St. Mary / Homersfield

Noted in Suckling (1846-1848): "Norman font, resting on five pillars". Suckling (ibid.) further notes: "At the time of the Norman Survey [i.e., 1086], this village comprised [...] two endowed churches". Noted in Parker (1855) as a Norman font "resting on five shafts". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Knott (2007) describes the font at Homersfield St Mary's as a Victorian copy of the Tournai font at Boulge. The present font is not Norman, but a modern one of the table-top Norman design (unless the basin is a total re-cut of an earlier one); it is unlikely that Suckling and Parker [cf. supra] would have mistaken the modern font for a Norman original, which leaves the option that this present font was introduced sometime thereafter, perhaps in the general restoration of this church in 1866. Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "bowl with seven traces of panels on each face", a description which does not match the present font at all; did Leach see another font here? If so, where is it? [source given: Pevsner]. [NB: we have no information on the present whereabouts of the original font of this church].