Covenham St. Bartholomew / Cawthorpe

There are two entries for Covenham [St Bartholomew and St Mary] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/XX0000/covenham-st-bartholomew-and-st-mary/] [accessed 10 February 2019], one of which reports a church in it [cf. infra]. The Covenhams site [https://covenham.org.uk/stmary.htm] [accessed 10 February 2019] notes: "Probably St Bartholomew's was the church of a small priory, where the monks and their servants would say the daily services. St. Mary's was the Church for the people of the parish. In the Domesday Book it is recorded that there was already a church in the parish and Esbern is described as the priest. This church was most probably St. Mary's and the older of the two." Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports: "The church contains a curious octagonal font, much admired by antiquaries". Described in Fowler (1874): "The octagonal bowl of the font is adorned with the following figures carved upon the panels, viz: --1. A representation of the Fist Person of the Holy Trinity, and the letters W. A. , perhaps the initials of William Askew, as the donor of this font. 2. The Virgin Mary and Holy Child. 3. St. James with a sword. 4. St. Bartholomew with a knife and hook. 5. St. Matthew with a sword and book. 6. St. Thomas with a spear and book. 7. St. Jude the Less with a fuller's bat and book. 8. St. John with Simon with ship and book. 9. St. Simon with club and book. 10. St. Philip with three loaves. 11. St. Jude with a saw and book. 12. St. Andrew with a saltire cross. 13. St. John with pen and book. 14. St. Peter with a key and book." Cox & Harvey (1907) list it as a baptismal font of the Perpendicular period, and repeat the suggestion regarding the donor's initials, after Fowler. According to Pevsner (1989) it is " a fine Perp octagonal piece with carvings in the East Anglian tradition of the apostles, the Virgin and the Trinity, has been transferred to All Saints, Newton Heath, Manchester." The original Pevsner work on Lincolnshire (1964) added: "The apostles stand in pairs. Their hair stands round their heads grotesquely so that the coiffure is as wide as their shoulders. A stray East Anglian piece." That edition did not mention the move, therefore one could safely assume that the font was moved to the Greater Manchester parish between 1964 and 1989. The entry for this church in Historic England [List Entry Number: 1063108] notes: "Church; late C14 - early C15, with possibly C18 brick patching, and C15 porch; north transept has been removed possibly C17 or early C18. Two episodes of restoration 1854-5 and 1863-64, the latter to the designs of the architects Rogers and Marsden of Louth." The entry in HE does not mention a font, but it appears to contradict the seniority assigned to St Mary's in another source: "St Bartholomew's is one of two churches in Covenham; the second, St Mary's, about 250m to the south, remains in use as the parish church. Both appear to be medieval rebuildings on an earlier plan, but there is evidence to suggest that St Bartholomew's is the earlier of the two and may have served as a pre-Conquest minster church. The clearest physical evidence of this is its setting at the south-west corner of a large enclosure, defined to the south by Birketts Lane, and to the east and north by a ditch and bank, visible in the field to the north and on aerial photographs. At the south-west corner the road curves round to the west of the churchyard, clearly respecting an earlier boundary." The entry for this church in the Heritage Trust [https://stbartstrust.org.uk/] [accessed 10 February 2019] notes: "The Covenham St Bartholomew Heritage Trust’s stated aim is “To secure the preservation of the church of St. Bartholomew, Covenham, Lincolnshire, for the benefit of the nation and use it for charitable purposes [...] Nothing exists of the church that originally stood on this site”. NB: we have failed so far to locate reliable information from the church sites either at Covenham or at Newton Heath, but we came across the following September 2011 statement in Rod Collins blog [http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/covenham-st-bartholomew-village-church-history] [accessed 10 February 2019]: "Brent said, September 9, 2011 @ 8:20 pm. Today for the first time I visited All Saints, Newton Heath in Manchester [a once industrial part of the inner city] I was amazed with the splendour of the font you mentioned from St Bartholomew. I would suspect looking at it, the date is 14th century if not before [ It looks very very old ]. It can be seen to have some deep secret history, which the attendant knew very little apart a card that gives the name of its previous home. One of the scenes depicts the Virgin Mary holding the baby. With the initial W to her right and A on her left, [facing you] what do they stand for? All Saints is one of the oldest churches in Manchester and linked with the cathedral which is situated close by. However today it is Georgian in style and a little out of context with the font. Rest assured it is in safe hands and I would expect in constant use. I feel the fine people there would be only too pleased to respond to any questions. The font is indeed a gem and well worth viewing and recording, its visual images my have meaning when in the context of St Bartholomew? I wish you luck getting to the bottom of your history. My personal feeling is it should be in its original situation or area as a testament to the good people of your county."