Wellingham / Walnecham / Walnesham

There is an entry for Wellingham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF8722/wellingham/] [accessed 14 February 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church of Wellingham is dedicated to St. Andrew [...] The church has three bells [...] 1304, William de Holm, rector". The only earlier reference to a church here found in Blomefield (ibid.) is one to a grant -or confirmation of a grant- related to a part of the advowson in the sixth year of Edward I's reign [i.e., 1278]. The present font 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 present font consists of a plain octagonal with tapering sides, showing some damage at the edges of the flat underbowl; it is raised on an octagonal pedestal base that appears modern or totally re-cut; the octagonal plinth is also modern.