Barton Turf / B'tuna / Barton by Bromholm / Bartuna / Berton

There are three entries for Barton [Turf] in the Domesaday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG3421/barton-turf/] [accessed 23 April 2014], of which two report church and church lands in them. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "B[arton], Called in old writings, Barton by Bromholm, and Barton Turf. The principal part of it, or manor, was in the reign of the Confessor, in the abbey of St. Bennet's at Holm", and notes two churches in it "in King Edward's time" [i.e., 1272-1307]; "The Church is dedicated to St. Michael, and was a rectory in the presentation of the abbot and convent of St. Bennet of Holm, valued at 13 marks; in the 18th of Richard II [i.e., 1395] it was appropriated to it, and a vicarage endowed". Pevsner & Wilson (1997) note: "Font. Is it old at all? Stem and bowl with the same motif of flatly carved trefoil-headed panels." Illustrated in Knott (2004). The font consists of an octagonal basin with vertical sides decorated with a blind arcade of trefoil-headed arches; graded moulding on the underbowl; the octagonal stem has an arcade similar to the one around the basin; the lower base is graded; two-step plinth with kneeling stone. Wooden cover. [NB: Pevsner et al.'s doubts about the date [cf. supra] may relate probably to the neat and fresh appearance of the carving; re-tooled?]. Noted in Leach (1975) as "fragments found in the churchyard and during the demolition of a cottage" from a font made of Purbeck marble [source given: The Rev. W.C. Hall].