Minehead / Maneheve / Menedun / Menehewed / Mynedd / Mynheafdon

There is an entry for Minehead [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SS9646/minehead/] [accessed 14 June 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer (1870-1872) reports that the church of St. Michael "contains a curious old font". Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Perpendicular period, "elaborately carved; the niched octagonal shaft has small figures of the Evangelists and the Four Doctors of the Church". Wade & Wade (1929) report simply a "fine font' in this church. Described in Pevsner (1958): "Octagonal, Perp[endicular], with richly panelled stem and, seated on the ledge at the foot of the bowl, figures, their legs hanging over the underside." There are two sets of figures on this font, all of them very worn: eight of them appear to be seated on a ledge or moulding at the lower side of the octagonal basin; the upper side of the basin and the rim are moulded; the underbowl chafer has mouldings on its lower part; there is a niche on each of the sides of the octagonal stem, crocketed canopies over them supported by columns with moulded capitals and bases; inside each niche is a figure standing on a raised platform. The wooden cover is of the ogee-dome type, with crocketed arrises, either 17th-century or a Victorian version thereof.