Buriton / Beriton / Buryton / Buyiton / Malpedresham / Mapledurham

No entry found for Buriton in the Domesday survey [NB: for a possible connexion see BSI entry for Mapledurham nr. Buriton]. Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a good specimen from a group of fonts "characteristic of the Norman period in architecture [...] consisting of a rectangular bowl upon a large central shaft, with four slender supporting shafts at the angles". The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 3, 1908) notes: "There was a church in Mapledurham (afterwards Buriton) at the time of the Domesday Survey" [i.e., 1086], but the history of the present church "annot now be taken back beyond the latter part of the twelfth century [...] The font stands at the west end of the south aisle, and is of late twelfth-century type, of Purbeck marble with a square bowl carried on a round central shaft and four shafts at the angles, the moulded bases of which are worked in one stone." Described and illustrated in Southern Life [http://www.southernlife.org.uk/buritchu.htm] [accessed 7 December 2008]: "Norman Font, said to be of Purbeck Marble of the late 12th century, standing on a round central shaft with four supporting columns. It would be interesting to know what symbols were so completely removed by chisel. It is suggested that the surfaces were varnished to reduce the effect of the scars. The wooden Victorian cover of the Font was a gift from Holy Trinity Church, Aldershot, in 19282" [sic] [1928? / 1982?]. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SU7496621407] reports: " C12 Purbeck square font on five columns." Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "the bowl is worn and plain" [source given: The Revd. W.J. Crewe].