Wood Norton No. 1 / Nortuna / Woodnorton

Of the four entries for "Nortuna" found in the Domesday survey, only one mentions a third part of church in this 'beruita' that belonged to the bishops of Thetford. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "There were two churches standing in this town in the 5th of Henry V.[i.e., 1418] [...]; AllSaints [and] St. Peter's [...] but St. Peter's has been dilapidated long since, and consolidated with AllSaints [...] All-Saints church has no steeple, but a frame for bells in the churchyard." Blomefield (ibid.) also mentions presentations to these churches at different dates, the earliest to St. Peter's, in 1308, the next to All Saints', in 1310. Thomas (1846) writes: "The font is somewhat peculiar--it stands on an octagonal platform supplied with kneeling-stone at the west. The shaft, also octagonal, has a double annulet just above the pediment; it supports a massive pumpkin-shaped bowl; the cavity is unusually large, lined with lead and has a drain. The canonical cover presents a dove as finial . This font is "fixed to the Lord's freehold in the centre of the nave, and near a door to signify our entrance into His church by baptism." Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "the font is Norman". Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as one in a very large group of baptismal fonts that are plain octagonal with straightsided basins. The font and cover are noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1997): "Big, plain, probably C17. -- Font cover. Plain, C17, with a dove on top." The font described and illustrated in Knott (2006) does not match T-G's font, or the 'Norman' font in Lewis: "This font [...] bulges like a ripe cheese, and I assume it is also late 17th century, probably a replacement for one damaged during the Commonwealth. The cover may well be contemporary, and designed for it." [NB: are they all describing the same object?]