Bitterley / Buterleg / Buterleye / Buterlie

The font in this church is noted in The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of October 1831: 297) in a communication to the Editor from D. Parker, in which the font is described as "anciant stone" and its location inside the church given as "opposite the south door". Parker's account is from a visit to the church on 10 July 1827. Engraving from a drawing by Rev. J. Brooke, del., in Eyton (1859- ) and in Anderson (1864). Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Norman period. The tub-shaped basin has a row of palmettes at the upper side, with a blind arcade of round arches on columns with capitals and bases below; raised on a squat but wide octagonal lower base. On the floor, by the font, appears to be a basket-weave object that may have been used as cover at the time of the sketch [ca. 1856?]. The entry for Bitterley in Domesday Book mentions a church here, and Anderson (ibid.) notes this church as a Saxon foundation. Newman & Pevsner (2006) describe the church as essentially Early English of the late 13th century, but the font as "Norman, tub-shaped with blank arcading and a little foliage in the spandrels"; they mention a flat wooden cover of the 17th century on it.