Sandal / Great Sandal / Sandal Magna / Sandala / Sandall / Sandall Magna

There is an entry for Sandal [Magna] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SE3418/sandal-magna/] [accessed 30 October 2018]; it reports three priests and two churches in it. Glynne's 9 March 1854 visit to this church, (in Butler, 2007) reports: "The font has an octagonal bowl of poor character, A.D. 1662, with a good wooden cover." Mentioned in Romilly Allen (1888) as a font dated 1662. Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a Restoration baptismal font dated 1662. Ditto Morris (1932), who notes three sets of initials next to the date on the font [cf. Inscription area]. In Pevsner (1986 c1967): "Font. Octagonal, with plain moulded sunk panels on foot and bowl; dated 1662." The Parish web site [www.sandalmagna.com/index.php?ids=41x1x1x1xaxxxnxx] [accessed 28 April 2013] informs: "The first known patron of the church was Edward to Confessor. Among the crown possessions of the Conqueror, on the death of Harold, was the patronage of Sandal Magna Church; a little later, when the Domesday Book was compiled, it was stated that in the manor of Wakefield there were three priests and two churches, of which one of the two may with certainty be assigned to Sandal Magna. [...] There is, however, nothing now visible of this Saxon church. About the year 1150 a new church in the shape of a Latin cross was built by Earl Warenne, Lord of the manor of Wakefield and of Sandal Castle [...] St. Helen's suffered at the time of the Civil War [...] the medieval font was replaced by a 'decent bason' [...] After the Commonwealth the ten churchwardens subscribed to the present font. Their initials appear on it as do those of the reigning monarch Charles ll (C.R.=Carolus Rex). The restoration Font was originally situated at the west end of the church and was moved to a position just west of the south door when the church was lengthened in 1872. In 1992, after many, many years of debate as to the repositioning of the Font, it was relocated at the West End of the church". [NB: we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church. According to Petyt (1998-2001) Sandal (Sandala) was King's land belonging to Edward the Confessor until 1066; the original church was of Saxon origin and appears in the Doomsday Book of 1086; a later church was built in the site ca. 1150]