Reepham / Refham

There is an entry for this Reepham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TG1022/reepham/] [accessed 19 February 2023]; it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "Sir John de Vaux's lordship of Hackford extended into this town; he obtained, in the 5th of Edward I. a charter for a weekly mercate on Saturday, and a fair on the eve, day, and morrow after the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. It is a little town, and was remarkable for 3 churches being erected in one cemetery, viz. of Refham, Whitwell, and Hackford, adjoining little villages, two of these are still standing, but that of Hackford has been long since burnt. [...] The church of Refham serves also for the village of Kerdeston, as belonging to the same lords. There was formerly a chapel in Kerdeston, standing in a close on a hill, called the chapel close, no part of it is now standing, being carried away at times to build and repair neighbouring houses; some low, hollow ground may be observed, where it is said was a moat, &c. but it is more probable that this was the manorhouse and chapel of the Kerdestons. [...] The church of Refham is dedicated to St. Mary's nativity [...] The Church has a square tower, a nave, chancel, and south isle covered with lead, and stands east of Whitwell church, in the same cemetery." The first dated mention of this church in Blomefield (ibid.) is that of the first recorded rector: "William Baynard occurs rector of a mediety in 1261", but it may have existed before that date. The present font here is described in Thomas (1846): "The font is curious; we incline to pronounce it early English. The square bowl, lined with lead and having a drain, exhibits slightly marched panels: it stands on a circular central stem with four satellites of irregular form at the angles. The base is imposed on two low steps before, but not in contact with the north west respond. We were sorry to find a vulgar blue basin on the unsightly cover, bearing thus open testimony to the desuetude of the canonical vessel." The Ecclesiologist (no. CLV, August 1861: 210) remarks: "The font appears to be First Pointed" [i.e., Early English]. 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"; ornamented with a blind arcade on the sides. Noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1997): "of rough-looking Purbeck marble". Noted and illustrated in Knott (2004): "The font, for example, which evades the mundanity of its setting in encaustic tiles by topping out its large, square platform like the tier of a wedding cake. Still square, yet no longer Norman, the bowl is an excellent example of Early English patternwork." The font stands on a broad round central shaft and four slender colonnettes with moulded caps and bases; the lower base is also square; two-step plinth; the area of the upper im of the basin appears to have been cut off and there is considerable gamage to the sides of the basin. The wooden cover is square and flat, with a groove around the upper surface; it has a small brass plate on the front, probably related to its donation; modern. Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble: "bowl with three panels on each face of Purbeck stone; supports are not Purbeck" [source given: Mr. M.G. Hurst] [NB: there are actually four, not three, panels on each side of the square basin].