Brandiston / Brandeston / Brantestuna / Bradiston and Guton

The Domesday entry for "Brantestuna" mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "Brandeston was a small lordship, or beruite, belonging to King Herold's great lordship of Cawston, in South Erpingham hundred, and at the conquest was possessed by King William I [...] The Church of Brandeston is a rectory [...] it is dedicated to St. Nicholas, consisting of a nave or body, and a chapel. and a round tower at the north-west end of the nave. [...] In the 11th of Edward I. [i.e., 1283] John le Marescall held of the Earl of Gloucester, the advowson of this church." Tyrell-Green (1928) reported an old baptismal font that had been converted into a sundial here. Pevsner & Wilson (1997) note that "in the C14 the Norman church was rebuilt on a much larger scale", and that the present font is "c.1895 on five colonnettes". The dial itself, rather than the font, is noted in Butson (2012). [NB: is the converted sundial from either of the earlier periods?] The present font is modern, and consists of an octagonal basin decorated with floral and foliage motifs, tracery and blank shields, raised on a columnar base with moulded capitals and bases, an octagonal lower base and a plinth. [cf. Index entry for Guton for the missing church from that locality].