Bottesford / Botbesford / Botesford / Bottesford nr. Grantham

There are two entries for this Bottesford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SK8038/bottesford/] [accessed 27 July 2015], one of which reports a priest and 1 hide of church lands in it, but not a church, though there must have been one there. White's Directory of Leicester and Rutland (1877) notes: "The octagonal and rudely sculptured font stands on four heavy balusters." Bond (1908) states that "hanging would not have been good enough for those who wrought the fonts of Tuxford [...] and Bottesford" and continues to exclaim that "the pseudo-Gothic fonts of the Restoration are mere Gothic shells; the Gothic spirit is not in them." The font is indeed rather awkward if not downright ugly; an octagonal basin has round arches with a variety of motifs in them (angel with tulips, rose bush, etc.); the upper base is a cluster of columns of mixed Baroque decor; the lower base is octagonal, each of its corners bearing an ugly head with its tongue sticking out; the whole is raised on a totally plain octagonal plinth, probably the most appealing part of this baptismal font. Noted in Pevsner (1984): "Font. Of the later C16, square [!], on four fat, bulbous legs and with round-arched panels with flowers or sprigs alternating with angels." A 13 July 2012 article by Neil Fortey in Bottesford Living History [https://www.bottesfordhistory.org.uk/content/topics/architecture/the-history-of-st-marys-a-personal-interpretation] [accessed 6 October 2023] refers to an earlier church here "a Saxon church of which nothing remains" [cf. supra to the Domesday reference] but farther down Fortey writes: "A saxon font dug out of the garden of Rutland Flats by sexton Tommy Robinson during the 1930s can be seen today in the south transept of St Marys. St Marys may be on the site of the saxon Beckingthorpe church." [NB: this claim, is noted elsewhere as a "Saxon font was recovered from the Duke of Rutland's hospital garden in the 1930's where it was being used as a water trough" but we have no been able to ascertain that a) it is a Saxon font, and b)that it is now [2023] inside the church].