Wiggenhall St. Mary / Wigenhale / Wigrehale

There are two entries for Wiggenhall [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/wiggenhall-st-germans-st-mary-magdalen-st-mary-th/] [accessed 9 December 2013]; the largest part had Ralph Baynar as tenent-in-chief at the time, the smaller one was in the lordship of Hermer de Ferrers [aka Hemerus de Ferrariis, etc.]; neither entry mentions a church or cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) appears to have missed the Domesday entry for the larger part: "The whole that the survey mentions of them is this; that Hermeru (fn. 1) de Ferrarijs had invaded or ejected a freeman out of half a carucate of land that he held in Wigrehale in King Edward's time valued at 3s. per ann. and of him he had not the protection, was not lord of the fee; (fn. 2) and which of the Wigenhales this was does not appear. The reason of this must be that the Wigenhales being parts or members of several adjoining lordships and villages, are accounted for and valued under them, (as is frequently found in the survey) or that the greatest part of the Wigenhales were at that time again overflowed, a standing pool or lake, and rendered quite unprofitable and neglected by their old lords or owners." Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The church was appropriated to the priory of Westacre, in Norfolk, given to it by the Lord Bardolf, (as I conceive,) or by Ralph de Tonys, founder of that monastery." The VCH (Norfolk, vol. 2, 1906) reports on the foundation of West Acre: "Ralph de Toni, the great Norman baron, to whom were granted by the Conqueror twentytwo manors in Norfolk, in conjunction with his wife Alice and their sons Roger and Ralph, founded a priory at West Acre in the time of William Rufus, under Oliver the parish priest and his son Walter", which means that the church of St. Mary must have been built between 1087 and 1100, in William II's reign. Blomefield describes St. Mary's church: "The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a very regular pile, having a body, a north and south isle, and a chancel; the nave, or body is thatched, the isles, and a south porch covered with lead; in the steeple, which is foursquare, are 5 bells." Cautley (1949) notes and illustrates a font cover of 1625 for this church. Only the cover is mentioned in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): " Font cover. Pretty, dated 1625. With four turned columns and four pendants, an octagonal pyramid roof, and a pelican on top." Noted and illustrated in Knott (2005): "an elegant Laudian font cover with slim pillars, and the date 1624. I wondered if the pelican in her piety on top was a later addition." Noted and illustrated in Byrne (2013). The font itself consists of an octagonal basin with plain sides and a curved underbowl ending in mouldings at the top of the octagonal pedestal base; the damage (?) around the upper rim appears to indicate it is medieval or late-medieval rather than Victorian.