Morningthorpe / Moringthorp / Mourning-Thorp / Mourningthorp / Moringa Thorp / Torp

There are two entried for [Morning] Thorpe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TM2192/morning-thorpe/] [accessed 18 October 2015], one of which mentions a church and "0.1 church lands" in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes that Thorp, aka Mourning-Thorp or Moring-thorp was reported in Domesday (fol. 183) as having a church and 20 acres of glebe in it; "The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, who had a gild kept in it to his honour. The rector had a house and 9 acres of glebe, when Norwich Domesday was made [...] The steeple is round, the church is leaded, and the chancel tiled.". Blomefield (ibid.) names "Richard" as its first recorded rector (undated), and later "Peter de Shotesham", rector from 1285. The present font here is described in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "C15. Octagonal. Against the stem four lions, against the bowl four lions and four demi-figures of angels." In their entry for Tharston Pevsner & Wilson (ibid.) mention the font at nearby Tharston as "probably by the same carver". Noted and illustrated in Knott (2005). Octagonal basin with deeply-carved panels, sejant lions alternating with angles holding shields charged with Latin crosses; underbowl of two levels: the upper has angel heads at the angles whereas the lower has a rosette on each side; four sejant lions against the sides of the square stem; octagonal plinth. Octagonal crown-shaped oak cover of a later date, probably Victorian; the sides with open-work above which are eight buttresses supporting a tall crocketed pinnacle. [NB: we have no information on the font from the Domesday-time church here.]