Winwick / Winequic / Winewich / Winwick with Hulme / Wynequic / Wynequick / Wynewyc

There is no individual entry for this Winwick in the Domesday survey, although it may be one of the 'berewicks' in the hundred of Newton [Neutone], perhaps one of its three churches [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SJ6092/winwick/] [accessed 17 July 2014]. Ellis (1902) notes: "The bowl of what has originally been a beautiful font, but too badly damaged to be of any further use, was discovered beneath the floor of the church during the restoration in 1877. This fragment now stands in the churchyard, beneath the east window of the church. [cf. infra] It is octagonal, of mill stone grit, and each face of the octagon has once borne upon it four elborately carved four-leaved flowers with central bosses, but these ornaments are so worn down as to be distinguishable only with difficulty. [...] From the character of its ornament this fonts appears to have been a typical specimen of [D]ecorated work (fourteenth century)". The Victoria County History (Lancashire, vol. 4, 1911) notes in its entry for Winwick: "In 1086 the church of St. Oswald held two ploughlands exempt from all taxation, (fn. 8) and was given by Roger of Poitou to the canons of St. Oswald, Nostell." And, on the font, the VCH (ibid.) adds: "The octagonal bowl of a 14th-century font found in 1877 beneath the floor of the church now lies outside the east end of the chancel [...] It is much worn, but has had four-leaved flowers on each face, with raised centres, and must have been a good piece of work when perfect". This is likely the same object mentioned in Pevsner (1969) and in Pollard & Pevsner (2006): "In the N chapel fragment of a big Perp[endicular] font", and in the Parish web site [http://newton-le-willows.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=563&Itemid=1] [accessed 22 April 2009]: "During excavations in 1877, we discovered an ancient font, buried beneath our church. The font now lies in the churchyard, below the East window. The workmanship of the font belongs to the early part of the fourteenth century,—a date when a considerable amount of building work took place here." [NB: this same source adds: "The present font is of relatively modern date—though it is carved in the style and shape of a font of the fifteenth century."] The Parish web site [http://www.stoswaldwinwick.com/page_23] [accessed 7 May 2009] shows the fragment of the basin -the lower half approximately- standing now on a later octagonal pedestal base by the wall of the nave]