Meonstoke No. 1 / Manestoke / Maonestoke / Menestoch / Menestoche / Menestoke / Mienestoch / Moenestoke / Munestoke / Munestokes

There are two entries for Meonstoke [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU6120/meonstoke/] [accessed 27 June 2018], neither of which reports priest or church in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) list a baptismal font of the Transitional period, ca. 1200, made of Purbeck marble in this church. The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 3, 1908) notes: "The main fabric of the church dates from the thirteenth century, with no trace of earlier work [...] The font at the west end of the south aisle is of a late twelfth-century type, with a square bowl on a central shaft, formerly flanked by four shafts at the angles. Its material is probably Purbeck marble, but it is covered by a coat of dark grey paint mottled with white spots in imitation of such a marble, and its real surface cannot be seen. The bowl has arcades on the east and north faces, and zigzag patterns and what seem to be trefoiled leaves on the west." Described in the Bridge Churches benefice web site [www.bridgechurches.org.uk/church_meonstoke.htm]: "This is original and is constructed of Purbeck marble and lead. There were four angle shafts as well and you can see traces of those. The top has leaf-like decoration at each corner, a circle of leaflets and small fruit round the bowl and on the sides different bands of damaged decoration. The bowl itself has a plughole and near it vestiges of a fastening for plug and chain."