Bagnall

No individual entry found for Bagnall in the Domesday survey. White's Gazetteer of 1851 notes that Bagnall St Chad's, which had been re-built in 1834, was a chapel of ease to Bucknall until 1853, year in which it fell under Stoke-on-Trent, under which it stayed until 1896 when it became a parish in its own right. According to the village web site [www.bagnallvillage.com], "the font is of plain stone with no record of its age. However a painting of the 'new' church shows a font of different design." The Open Churches Trust entry for St. Chad's [www.openchurchestrust.org.uk/StaffordStChad.htm] states that "the font bowl is dated 1856". Chris Laning, on her visit to the church in 2006, sent BSI the following note: "The font in St. Chad's [...] is a 19th-century attempt to create a 'Saxon' font and it's almost convincing, except of course that the carvings are quite fresh." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SJ9283750959] notes: "Parish church. 1834, altered c.1880. By J. Beardmore", and mentions no font in it. [NB: it is possible that the original church which was replaced by the present Victorian building may have existed in Anglo-Saxon times, but there is no information on an original font of that period in any Stafford church -- another local source, the Staffordshire Web [www2.staffordshire.gov.uk/stchads/blackbid.htm] informs that the font now at St. Mary's [cf. Index entry for Stafford No. 1] has often been claimed as the original font at St. Chad's -- It should be noted, however, that the font now at St. Mary's is either very late Norman or Transitional, at the earliest, not Anglo-Saxon] ***{NB: it may be possible that a mistake was made understanding that "Bagnall, Stafford" meant "Bagnall in the town of Stafford, instead of Bagnall, Staffordshire"]