Norton Lindsey / Lower Norton / Mortone / Norton Limesi / Norton Limsey / Norton Lindsay

There is an entry for Norton [Lindsey] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP2263/norton-lindsey/] [accessed 25 November 2014], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The entry for this parish in Notices of the churches of Warwickshire (vol. 2, 1858) notes: "Norton, or Norton Lindsey, as it is now usually colled, is a chapelry of Claverdon. The proper name, however, is Norton Limesi [...] The Chapel (which was built in the reign of King John [i.e., 1199-1216] and still retains many features of its original character) was not originally attached to Claverdon, but belonged to the church of Wootton VVawen"; there is documentary confirmation of the parochial functions of this chapel in a written agreement between the Prior of Wootton and the Rector of Claverdon, according to this source [this had resulted from serious arguments about the right to the tithes by both parties]; Notices... (ibid.) notes the earlier parts of the fabric of this chapel as Early English (e.g.: south and north [blocked], doorways of the nave), and gives a description and illustration of the baptismal font here: "This consists of an ancient cylindrical basin, eighteen inches in diameter, nine inches deep within, and twelve inches high, externally, the interior being leaded. This is placed on a cylindrical shaft of the same height but of somewhat greater diameter, placed upon a circular basement." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font, an "unadorned cylinder bowl, at Norton". English Heritage [Listing NGR: SP2292463080] (1967) reports a "Simple font said to be Saxon" in this church. A baptismal font of this period is listed in the CRSBI (2014) with reference to F.T.S. Houghton's entry in his Warwickshire Fonts (Birmingham Arch. Soc. transactions v. 43: 53) and, although Cox & Harvey's description does not exactly match this object, it is probable that they are referring to the same: the basin is tub-shaped and plain, raised on a plain cylindrical base with the upper rim chamfered; circular plinth made of several blocks arranged radially as usual. The CRSBI (ibid.) identifies the material as grey sandstone and informs that the basin is lead-lined. [NB: there does not appear to be any real grounds for dating this font as early as some sources have done; in the absence of any other evidence, the font is likely to date, at the earliest, to the late-12th century, the time around which the first chapel was built].