Brinklow

No entry for Brinklow found in the Domesday survey, but, according to Dugdale [quoted in the VCH entry below], it was included with Smite, itself now disappeared. Bond (1908) quotes a churchwarden's account from the parish register at Brinklow for the year 1653: "bought a bassin to cristen the children which cost three shilling sixpence" [it was surely the "bassin" that cost three and six, not the children]. [NB: this 'bassin', introduced in the Puritan spirit of the Commonwealth, would have been as plain and simple as possible, and probably discarded during the Restoration]. The Victoria County History (Warwick, vol. 6, 1951) notes: "Brinklow was originally a chapelry of Smite, and was granted with the parent church, in the reign of Henry I [i.e., 1100-1135], by Samson de Albenei with the consent of Roger de Mowbray to the priory of Kenilworth [...] The parish church [...] was rebuilt about the end of the 15th century and all that remains of the earlier church is the chancel, parts of the north aisle walls and possibly the staircase to the roodloft. [...] The font, with a lead-lined basin, is built into the west side of the north arcade pillar opposite the door. It is of stone, with an octagonal moulded basin with paterae, and octagonal stem and base which has been rendered in cement. It has been re-dressed but is probably contemporary with the arcade" [i.e., "probably early-16th century" (VCH., ibid.)] [NB: this church has a north porch and entrance, and the font, built into the second pillar from the west, is in a straight north-south line with the entranceway]. In Pevsner & Wedgwood (2000 c1966) as an octagonal font decorated with fleurons, possibly Perpendicular.