Claverley No. 1 / Claverlege / Claverly

There is an entry for Claverley [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SO7993/claverley/] [accessed 4 March 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Interestingly, the detailed description of this church and its contents in the letter from D. Parkes to the editor of The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of December 1822: 489-491) mentions neither of the two baptismal fonts inside this church. One of the fonts here is dated in Home (1947) to the pre-Conquest period. Noted in Newman & Pevsner (2006) as a second circular bowl, perhaps Norman as well. Noted and illustrated in the CRSBI (2015): "Tub-shaped and bulbous with slight inward taper. Plain, except for three superimposed convex rings round the top of the bowl. Chisel marks on the outer surface of the bowl. Placed on later, square bowl of medieval date. [...] Home [cf. supra] suggests that the plain font is Anglo-Saxon. It is not mentioned by Pevsner (1958) but Newman & Pevsner [cf. supra] suggest that it might be Norman. The 12thc. font stands on medieval, probably 13thc. tiles, and was therefore probably moved to its present position after the construction of the S aisle. The trumpet scallops of the nave arch suggests a date of c.1170-90 for this feature." [NB: the CRSBI entry has heading 'Anglo-Saxon font' with questionable date on the 11th century]. Barrel-shaped basin claimed to be of Saxon date [some local sources place it back as far as the 7th century]. The basin is almost totally plain but for a triple thin moulding around the upper basin side; it is mounted on a what may be the square basin of a alater baptismal font [cf. supra], or the base of a column. This church has an old Norman font [cf. Index entry for Claverley No. 2] roughly contemporary with the church; perhaps this was the font of the earlier church, though not necessarily going as far back as the 10th century as some claims do [e.g.: the Claverly Parish Portal [http://claverleyparish.co.uk/about-claverley-parish/history-claverley/] [accessed 4 March 2015] describes this font as: "a rough hewn Saxon bowl dating back to the 7th century."]