Barton Bendish No. 1 / B'tuna / Bertun / Bertuna / Bettuna

The Domesday entry for "Bertuna" cited in Blomefiled (1802-1810) reports "a church endowed with 12 acres", and this author notes: "St. Andrew's Church is a single pile, built of flint stones, &c. in length about 53 feet, in breadth about 19, covered with reed, and has a square tower, coped with free stone, and three bells; on the top or summit is a cup or cover, with a weathercock. Over the entrance or arch of the porch, in a nitch, stands a little antique figure of St. Andrew, with his shield, a saltire cross in his right hand; and on the sides of this porch are flint stones, worked in the form of saltires. [...] 1299, Robert de Everdon occurs rector." White's Directory (1854: 623-624) notes: "Barton had formerly three CHURCHES, [...] St. Andrew's Church is a large thatched fabric, with a square tower and three bells. The Chancel has recently been refitted with oak seats, and a beautiful stained glass window added on the north side of the church. The chancel has a piscina and curious ornamental niche" [source: transciption by A.J. Carter in http://apling.freeservers.com/Villages/BartonBendish54.htm [accessed 13 August 2013]]. The baptismal font here is listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins. Illustrated in Knott (2006). The plain octagonal basin has a moulded underbowl; it appears to have been re-tooled; the stem is octagonal and plain, and the lower base is moulded and octagonal as well. Both parts of the base appear modern. Modern too is the octagonal, flat and plain wooden cover. [NB: the nearby church of St. Mary has an object in the garden that may be a font, though a modern one; it is octagonal, with quatrefoils on the basin sides, raised on an octagonal-to-square pedestal base -- illustrated in Knott (2006) -- we have no information on the font of the original church here]