Atherstone / Aderestone

There is an entry for Atherstone [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP3097/atherstone/] [accessed 8 December 2014], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Warwick, vol. 4, 1947) notes: "The chancel may be built on the foundations of the 12th-century chapel of the alien Abbey of Bec. [...] The Friary of St. Augustine, founded by Ralph, Lord Basset of Drayton, c. 1375 took over the chapel and remodelled it by inserting new windows, &c. The chapel probably had a west tower of the 13th or 14th century on which the present tower stands. The Augustinians added a nave c. 1385 [...] so that the tower became central and there may have been some sort of transept. After the Dissolution the chancel became the chapel of the grammar school founded by Sir William Devereux, who held the manor in the 16th century. Amyas Hill, who owned the site of the friary, presented the chapel to the school, the charter being dated 22 December 1573. The chancel arch was walled up and a new doorway was inserted in the north wall. It served the school until 1863 and then was allowed to remain derelict for 20 years. The nave, aisles, &c., had been rebuilt in 1849 and in 1888 the chapel was purchased by the vicar and restored to the church as the chancel. [...] The octagonal bowl of the font may be of some age retooled or recarved. Each side has a trefoiled panel; those to the cardinal points are carved with emblems of the four Evangelists and the others with shields bearing instruments of the Passion." Davidson (1985) reports a baptismal font, probably of the 15th century, "possibly recarved", in this church. It is ornamented with "Instruments of the Passion, on shields: robe & dice; ladder, sponge, & spear; scourges & pillar; cross, hammer, pincers, 3 nails" (ibid.); also, the symbols of the four Evangelists, in between the shields. [NB: the drawings for a 1850 baptismal font for the church at Atherstone by Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880) and David Brandon (1813-1897) were on sale on e-Bay in January 2010 [http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATHERSTONE-CHURCH-FONT-Orig-WYATT-BRANDON-c1850_W0QQitemZ390105702503QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_art_drawings_GL]. This new font consists of an octagonal basin decorated with blank shields inscribed in quatrefoils, raised on a base of clustered colonnettes with moulded capitals and bases. It is not known whther the font was ever completed or not]. [NB; the church is said to have been originally a friary chapel from the 12th century, with several renovations through the centuries; the present edifice is dated to 1849 and the dedication to St. Mary appears to be also of the latter date]