Steeple Langford / Langeford / Langeforde [Domesday]

There are seven entries for [Hanging, Little and Steeple] Langford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [www.domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/hanging-little-and-steeple-langford/] [accessed 3 March 2015], neither of which reports a cleric or church in it. Cox & Harvey (1907) lists a baptismal font of the Norman period here. Noted in Buck (1951) as one in a group of Norman square fonts dating between 1130 and 1200, including those at North Tidworth, Codford St. Peter, Ebbesbourne Wake, Steeple Langford, Amesbury, Maiden Bradley, Downton and Dinton. Buck (1951) suggests "two crudely carved thistles (?)" on the south side of the basin. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Square, of Purbeck marble.One side has the familiar very shallow blank arches, another big zigzags, a third a motif of two rings connected by a bar. On the top in the spandrels two animal heads, a flower, and another motif, Norman." The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 15, 1995) notes: "Steeple Langford church was apparently standing in the 12th century. [...] The Purbeck marble font is of the 12th century and the east wall of the nave, which bears the scars of responds for a narrow, aisled, nave, may also be of that date." Listed in Drake (2002) as a baptismal font of the Purbeck group. The font consists of a square table-top basin with a rounded underbowl, raised on a five-support base made up of a broad shaft in the centre and one slender colonnette at each angle, all of it mounted on a square lower base with a moulded top. The general design is that of the Tournai font. Foliage motif appears on the top surface of the upper rim, and at least on one of the sides; one side has a blind arcade; the lower base has the usual mouldings that serve as bases for the five columns of the support structure. The wooden font cover appears modern. Other Purbeck fonts in this county listed in Drake (2002: 175) for Amesbury, Codford St Peter, Dinton, Downton, Maiden Bradley and Rushall. [NB: both hamlets of Bathampton and Hanging Langford had medieval chapels, but it is not known whether baptisms took place in them].