Kempstone No. 1 / Chemeston / Kemestuna / Kempston

There is an entry for this Kempston [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF8816/kempston/] [accessed 14 February 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church is a rectory [...] William Earl Warren the third confirmed this grant of the church of Chemeston, with the appertenances, which Wimer Dapifer had formerly given to the priory of Castleacre, and Roger Buzun quitclaimed to the advowson. Eborard Bishop of Norwich confirmed the appropriation of it to the priory, after the death of John the rector, in the time of Henry I. King John, by his charter, and Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury are also said to have confirmed it; but it appears from the register of Castleacre, that William de Alezon was presented as rector, by the prior, in 1226. The first vicar that I have met with was Walter de Castleacre, presented by the prior, and admitted by Walter de Suffield Bishop of Norwich, which was on the 11th of the calends of March, in his 2d year, 1246; at which time the endowment of the vicarage was settled". The earliest mention of the church therefore appears to be the one related to the confirmation of the church grant by William, 3rd earl of Warren [aka Warenne], who died in 1148, thus dating the church here to between 1086 and 1148. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 notes: "the font is handsomely sculptured". Described in Cautley (1949) and in Pevsner (1962) as a baptismal font of the 15th-century decorated with tracery motifs on the basin and stem. Pevsner & Wilson (1999) report the state of the church: "Disused and inaccessible" and note a font inside: "C15, with traceried stem and bowl." Knott (2005) reports on the state of dereliction of this church in the mid-1970s and on his visit to the site in May 2005 . There was no font to be found, but Knott (ibid.) reproduces an illustration that appeared in Lady Harrod's 'Norfolk country churches and the future' of 1972, in which the font is still found in the interior of the church, west end of the nave, opposite the south door. Knott (ibid.) further reports: "David Cawley, now a Vicar in Leicester, was Curate of Sprowston at the time [i.e., ca. 1972]. Writing to me in 2005, he recalled: I was a friend of the then Vicar of Litcham with Kempstone. We managed to get permission to remove the bowl and stem of the font, and to re-erect it in St Cuthbert's Church, Wroxham Road, Sprowston. You can still see it there."