Field Dalling / Dalinga / Dalliga / Dallinga

There are four entries for Dalling [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG0039/field-dalling/] [accessed 11 December 2013], Blomefield (1805-1810) metions the church here: "The Church is dedicated to St. Andrew, and is a vicarage [...] It was formerly a rectory [...] the priory of Castleacre: had a portion of tithe", and notes that "Richard de Saxlingham was rector about the reign of Henry II presented by Hardewine Bacun", and the rectors' list ends in 1384 with "Thomas in the Fen, [presented] by William in the Fen. In the fourth year of Richard II [i.e., 1381]. William Walsham, &c. aliened this rectory to the college of St. Mary in the fields, at Norwich, and Henry Bishop of Norwich appropriated it, on March 11, in the said year, [...] to the priory of Norwich, and a vicarage was settled", vicarage which starts in "1385, Roger Wychingham instituted vicar, presented by the dean, &c. of that college" [St. Mary in the Fields, Norwich]. It can therefore be assumed that the church here existed by the mid-12th century as a rectory. The present font here is reported in Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 simply as "a fine font". Farrer (1887 [1885?]) notes the emblems on the font: "II. Two swords in saltire, St Paul. -- III. A saltire, St, Andrew. -- IV. St. Andrew. -- V. Three escallops, St. James. -- VI. A cross surmounted of a crown of thorns, Shield of the Crucifixion. -- VII. The sacred monogram in Hebrew letters. -- VIII. A cross, with spear and reed in saltire. Shield of the Crucifixion. -- IX. Emblem of the Trinity." Described in Pevsner & Wilson (1997): "Font. Octagonal, Perp[endicular], drastically recut. Instruments of the Passion and emblem of the Trinity, St Andrew's Cross, crossed swords, monogram of Jesus, etc. Fleurons against the underside." Described and illustrated in Knott (2004). All the motifs mentioned above are on the basin and are actually re-cuts; the stem is a plain octagonal shaft, probably a replacement. The wooden font cover is of the Jacobean type consisting of an octagonal platform with eight raised scroll ribs around a centre pivot; probably 19th-century.