Hemington nr. Peterborough / Hemingtone / Heminthon / Hemintone / Hennington / Hevinton / Himintone / Hinintone

There are two entries for this Hemington [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TL0985/hemington/] [accessed 11 October 2019] neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. The Victoria County History (Northampton, vol. 3, 1930) notes: "church, dedicated to St. Peter, at least as early as 1254, [...] but since 1786 to St. Peter and St. Paul [...] With the exception of the tower, which is of late 15th century date, very little ancient work survives […] The font is of late 12th or early 13th century date, and consists of an octagonal bowl and circular moulded stem, in which the nail-head ornament occurs. The shorter sides of the bowl have carved heads in their upper part." [NB: the VCH description of the basin as "octagonal" is not a contradiction, as the square font has the corners significantly chamfered]. Noted in Mee (1945): "On the font are the head of a man and the head of a horse". Mee (ibid.) appears to make the font a contemporary of Thomas Montagu, "of the time of Henry the Eighth" [i.e., 1509-1546]. Described in Pevsner & Cherry (1973): "Square, with chamfered corners. On the chamfers four faces. Short circular foot with nailhead, like a section from a pier; C13." The entry for this church in Great English Churches [www.greatenglishchurches.co.uk/html/benefield_and_hemington.html] [accessed 12 October 2019] notes: "simple Norman font with heads at each corner [...] original pedestal with pellet moulding." [NB: the reason why sources disagree on the shape of the font -square vs. octagonal- is because the chamfered angles of the square font are quite wide, though not as much as the sides proper; the heads are part of the chamfers].