Dean Prior / Dene [Domesday]

There is an entry for Dean [Prior] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SX7363/dean-prior/] [accessed 14 September 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. A font here is listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as a baptismal font "among many of circular form and an early age, enriched with various carved mouldings, wreaths, scrolls, or foliage". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as having a baptismal font of the Norman period. Noted and illustrated in Stabb: "There is a good circular font of red sandstone [...], the bowl has two bands of carving and rests on a short shaft; it is of Late Norman date, and probably belonged to the original church, which is supposed to have been built and endowed by the Fitz-Stephen family about the middle of the 12th century. Described and illustrated in Clarke (1918): "This font is of red sandstone; of the same shape as the honeysuckle fonts [cf. Index entries for Ashprington, Blackauton, Buckfastleigh, Denbury, Cornworthy, Dartmouth St. Petrock's, Paignton St Andrew's, Plymstock, South Brent, Thurlestone, Ugborough and Wolbororugh, all in Devon]; its dimensions are near those of Buckfastleigh, the smallest of the honeysuckle group. Below a roll moulding at the rim is a three-inch band of star moulding, like Loddiswell and Cornworthy, and instead of honeysuckle for the main ornament there is a band on incised quasi-classical design, six inches wide, with straight bounding lines. The lower part of the bowl is left plain. The rim has been a good deal patched, but traces of one cover-staple remains. The outline of the shaft at its junction with the base moulding is lost under a mass of cement. No doubt several coats of whitewash had to be scraped off as in many other cases, and a soft stone might easily suffer in the process, but it must be granted that the font is over-restored. It stands on a modern plinth and step. The bowl is lead-lined. Apart from the intrinsic merits this font has a peculiar interest, as in the modernized church it seems to be the only thing left that can be associated with the memory of Robert Herrick, the poet, who was vicar of Dean Prior in the reigns of Charles I and II, and he must have baptized many babies in this font." Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Norman, circular, of red sandstone, with a band of crosses saltire and another broader band with two long distorted dragons." In Hoskins (1954) also as Norman. The Devon Libraries Local Studies Service [www.devon.gov.uk/localstudies/84282/1.html] [accessed 19 January 2009] lists a photograph [Ref. No. P&D03442] of this font from ca.1900 in its archives, but does not provide on-line access to it.