Wormley / Wermelai [Domesday] / Wermele / Wurmelea

There are three entries for Wormley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TL3605/wormley/] [accessed 19 January 2015], neither of which mention cleric or church in it. There is a 1828 sepia drawing of this font by J[ohn] Buckley in the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies [ref.: D/Z119/6/236B]. The 'Building news and architectural review' (vol. 9, issue of 14 November 1862: 382) reports the recent re-opening of this church after renovations and notes: "A singularly fine early font, heretofore hidden, has been thrown open." Described and illustrated in Cox & Harvey (1907): "Wormley is an unusual form of Norman font; there is a bold dignity about the band of conventional foliage round the upper part of the bowl, as shown in the plate reproduced form the East Herts Archaeological Society's Transactions for 1901." (ibid.) Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Hertforshire (1911): "Font: circular bowl with eight rectangular panels decorated with leaf ornament and surrounded by cable borders, 12th-century; base modern." The Victoria County History (Hertford, vol. 3, 1912) notes: "The church of Wormley with the manor was in the possession of the monks of Waltham Holy Cross in the reign of Henry II [i.e., 1154-1189] [...] The nave is of early 12th-century date. [...] The font has a large cylindrical bowl of the 12th century; it has four large and four small rectangular panels surrounded by a cable moulding. In the centre of each of the larger panels is a leaf ornament; the smaller are carved with bands of leaf ornament. The upper part of the font has a border of leaves, the base is modern." The font is goblet-shaped; the upper basin side has stylised foliage motif all around; the main part of the basin surface is divided in quadrangular panels by vertical and horizontal rope mouldings; these panels are ornamented with several motifs. The stem of the base is cylindrical and plain, narrower in circumference than the basin; the lower part splays out a little. It is mounted on an octagonal plinth, clearly of later date. Noted in Tompkins (1922): "Norman font". Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a font decorated with a rope moulding among other motifs. English Heritage [Listing NGR: TL3552305866] (1961) reports: "Saxon or early Norman circular font with frieze of upright leaves, and cable mouldings forming panels." In Pevsner & Cherry (1977): "Font. Norman, circular, of very uncommon design. An upper frieze of broad upright leaves, and below this panels separated from each other by thick cable mouldings. In the panels rosettes and groups of upright leaves."