Stanway nr. Colchester / Little Stanway / Stanewega

There is an entry for this Stanway [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TL9324/stanway/] [accessed 14 June 2018], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Bond (1908) describes a baptismal font of the 15th century; one of the panels of the basin shows "a chalice within which is the Sacred Host surrounded by rays of glory, from the midst of which rises Our Lord". Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: octagonal bowl with panelled sides, panels with blank shields and irradiated chalice and host alternately, moulded lower edge and base, 15th-century." In Pevsner (1976): "Font. Octagonal Perp[endicular], with panels with shields and with the chalice and the host surrounded by rays." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) add: "Defaced during the Civil War. Oak cover by H. & K. Mabbitt, 1955." [NB: the damage to the chalice motifs may be due to Reformation or Civil War related iconoclasm, but the damage to the upper rim may be related to the forceful removal of old cover staples]. In the Victoria County History (Essex, vol. 10, 2001): "In the early Middle Ages there were two churches in Stanway: All Saints' beside Stanway Hall in Great Stanway, and St. Albright's or St. Ethelbert's on the London road in Little Stanway", the latter described as a "late 11th- century church". The VCH (ibid.) further notes: "The octagonal 15th-century font has alternating chalices and blank shields on its faces." [NB: the nearby Church of All Saints, Great Stanway [formerly in the grounds of Stanway Hall, which are now part of the Colchester Zoo] is in ruins since the 18th century; originally of the 13th century, and adapted as a private chapel in the 17th; we have no information on its medieval font]