Brockdish / Broad-ditch / Brodiso

Gough (1792) cites Blomefield on the issue of a cover being "bought for Brockdish font so late as 1553". Blomefield (1805-1810) writes of a church that stands, at Brockdish, on the left side of the road to Yarmouth, and cites the Domesday (1086) entry which reports "that the rector had a house and 30 acres of land," The Blomefield (ibid.) reference to the font reads: "1553, 1st Queen Mary, paid for a book called a manuel 2s. 6d.; for two days making the altar and the holy-water stope, and for a lock for the font." Blomefield (ibid.) further names the first two recorded rectors in Brockdish. one "Robert" and "Sir Ralf de Creping", both of whom are recorded without and accurate date in the 13th century. Dugdale (1819) transcribes the same reference reported in Blomefield [cf. supra]. White's Directory of 1854 (p. 377-378) reports: "A handsome font has been erected in lieu of a singular pile of stones purloined from a neighbouring tomb, and amalgamated into the required form. The bowl of the ancient font was found inverted, and set in the pavement at the chancel door." Rector George France, at the time of the major renovation of the church in the 1870s, had installed the baptistery beneath the tower; by this time the old basin had already been 'buried' into the pavement [cf. supra], and we have not found any further reference to it. Simon Knott (2005) reports: "The font has recently been moved back into the body of the church", again, referring to the 19th-century font. [NB: the fabric of the church goes back to Domesday times, but we have no confirmation of the date of the present font, nor do we have confirmation of the whereabouts of the medieval cover].