Newington by Sittingbourne / Newenton / Newetone / Newington-near-Sittingbourne / Newington-next-Sittingbourne / Nyewynton

There is an entry for this Newington [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TQ8665/newington/] [accessed 3 May 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Hasted (1798) writes: "The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, with a square beacon tower at the west end. On the north side of the high chancel is the lower part of a square tower, which reaches at present no higher than the roof of the church, where it has a flat covering. [...] The church of Newington was given in the 25th year of Henry II. anno 1178, to the abbey of Westwood, alias Lesnes, in Erith, then founded by Richard de Lucy, which gift was confirmed, among other possessions of that monastery, by king John, in his 7th year." The present font here is noted in Glynne (1877): "The font is a plain octagon, but has a large wood cover of the age of Elizabeth, in which the Gothic and Italian forms are mixed; but the effect is handsome." [NB: Glynne (ibid.) explains in a footnote that the cover of this font "is a 'buffet' cover similar to that in Ticehurst Church; it cannot be raised, but three of its sides form a door which opens outwards upon hinges". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period. Bond (1908) mentions the baptismal font here as having "an Elizabethan rim buffet" cover; he describes the type as "fixed to the rim of the font and have shutters opening like those of a tryptich"; the font-cover at Newington [-near-Sittingbourne] has three sides "forming a door which opens outwards upon hinges" (ibid.) Hussey (1852) does not mention a font here, but reports "the case of the font is of carved oak" in Newington-by-Hythe [was this a transpostion? Error?] Noted in Newman (1976): one of the two tallest font covers in the county, with doors, 16th-century: "The crown is utterly Perp[endicular], but the Ionic baluster columns at the angles of the main part, and the mannered foliage between them are Early Renaissance features of the 1530s in England." The Kent Archaeological Society web site illustrates a watercolour dated 1786 [ref. no. KD2-101] depicting the font by itself [web source: www.kentarchaeology.org.uk]. The font consists of a basin of vertical sides and chamfered underbowl, raised on a pedestal stem and moulded lower base, all of them octagonal and plain except for roll mouldings at the top and bottom of the stem. [NB: we have no information on the earlier font here].