Belbroughton / Bellbroughton / Bellenbrokton / Belm / Belme / Beolne / Bereton/ Broctune / Brotune / Brotvne

There is an entry for Belbroughton [variant spelling] in the Domesday book [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SO9277/belbroughton/] [accessed 11 September 2014], and it mentions a priest and a church in it. Miller (1890) does not mention a font in his entry for this parish, but notes the first recorded rector here as "Ricardus Laberton ... 1320]. A font here is listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Decorated period. The Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 3, 1913) notes: "There were a church and priest at Belbroughton in 1086 [...] The existence of a 12th-century church is clear from the portions of the south door, the window west of it, and from various carved fragments at the rectory of the same or earlier date. The earliest part of the existing building is the south aisle, which dates from the 13th century. [...] The font is of the 15th century with octagonal bowl and quatrefoiled panels, a stem and moulded base." Brooks & Pevsner (2007), however: "Octagonal, standard Perp[endicular], with quatrefoils enclosing flowers". [NB: the VCH notes framents of 12th- and 13th-century carvings, as well as a piece of a pre-Conquest cross found in this church, but we have no information on the early-medieval font].