Brailes / Lower Brailes

There is an entry for [Lower and Upper] Brailes in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/lower-and-upper-brailes/] [accessed 19 December 2014], but it mentions neither cleric nor priest in it. A font here is noted in Paley (1844). Illustrated in a 1840 drawing by Henry E.L. Dryden, now in the Sir Henry Dryden Collection, Northamptonshire. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908) as an octagonal baptismal font; as with several other fonts, "the extraordinary course was adopted of filling the faces [i.e., the panels of the basin] with specimens of the diversified window tracery of the day" (ibid.) The underbowl chamfer has foliage motif ornamenation. There is a wide octagonal plinth that appears ornamented in the manner of that of the font at the cathedral of Hereford, with multicoloured mosaics on the upper surface. Described and illustrated in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one of group of 14th-century fonts in the Decorated style ornamented with varied patterns of blind tracery (in this group are: Offley in Herts.; Weobley in Hereford; Goadby Marwood and Noseley in Leics.; Barrowby, Carlton Scroope and Haydor in Lincs.; Northampton St. Peter's; Kiddington, Bloxham and Woodstock in Oxon.;Brailes in Warwick, and Patrington in Yorkshire). The font has an octagonal wooden cover. The Victoria County History (Warwick, vol. 5, 1949) notes: "Roger, Earl of Warwick, in the reign of Henry I [i.e., 1100-1135] gave the church of Brailes to the priory of Kenilworth. [...] About the end of the 12th century it was appropriated to the priory and a vicarage was ordained. [...] The font in the nave has a fine 14th-century deep octagonal bowl, the sides of which are variously treated with three-light traceried window designs; below these are hollow mouldings carved with two bands of ballflowers and foliated paterae connected by running wavy stems: the moulding below these is in the form of a capital of a pillar. The short stem and splayed base are plain and probably later repairs." The only church reported in Upper Brailes is a Methodist chapel of the mid-19th century.