Norton Canes / Norton-under-Cannock / Nortone

There is an entry for Norton [Canes] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SK0208/norton-canes/] [accessed 22 July 2019]; it reports five priests but not a church in it, though there must have been one there. Lewis' Dictionary of 1831 reports here one of the most remarkable fonts in the county. The entry for Norton Canes, aka Norton-under-Cannock, in Gorton's Topographical Dictionary of 1833 mentions a church dedicated to St Margaret (!) and "an ancient and curious font" in it. Noted in Tymms (1834). There is a 1843 sepia wash drawing of a font here by John Buckler, now in the William Salt Library [www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/Details.aspx?&ResourceID=9210&PageIndex=48&SearchType=2&ThemeID=454] [accessed 22 July 2019]; the font illustrated in JB cosnsists of an octagonal basin with panels decorated with an inscribed motif or symbol (floral, cross, etc.) in a cusped quatrefoil, a patterned underbowl chanfer, a plain octagonal pedestal base and a moulded lower base; sight unseen, either Perpendicular or 19th-century. Wilsons's Gazetteer of 18701872 reports "an ancient font" in this church. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. The entry for this church in Historic England [Legacy System number: 271296] notes: "Parish church of 1832 by Trubshaw & Johnson, rebuilt after a fire in 1888 by Osborn & Reading. [...] Most of the furnishings date from the rebuilding of the church after the 1888 fire. The octagonal font is in Perpendicular style. [...] The stone pulpit has blind arcading with Christian symbols, and is clearly a pair with the font." The parish church site [http://www.stjamesnortoncanes.org.uk/] [accessed 22 July 2019] mentions also "a wrought iron font" donated to the church after the 1888 fire.