Erwarton / Wardestune / Wartuna

There are two entries for Erwarton [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TM2234/erwarton/] [accessed 19 April 2024] neither of which mentions priest or church in it. An octagonal font "with animals (said to be leopards,) round the pedestal, angels and other figures in the panels of the bowl" is noted in Parker (1855). The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of July-Dec, 1856: p. 350) reports a visit to Erwarton on 24 July 1856 by members of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, and includes a mention of the font in its church: "The font is an octagon, the base of which is modern; and the basin and pedestal have been recut. The angles of the later have leopards or other animals attached. The panels of the basin have roses alternating with two lions and two angels holding shields -- the one charged with the cross of baptism, and the other with the emblem of the Trinity." Illustrated in Knott (2008), who notes "the happy lions around the font". The font consists of an octagonal basin with deeply-carved sides that include floral motifs -one of them a Tudor rose-, seated lions and at least one angel holding a shield charged with the emble of the Trinity; the underbowl chamfer has a square flower on ean side; the pedestal base is the usual type in fonts of this East Anglian design and period, octagonal-to-square, with seated lions at the angles and buttresses on the sides [others may have woodwosses instead of buttresses]. The insistence on 'leopards' in describing the animals here stems probably from the possible re-carving of the original animals; of the four, one is clearly a male lion with a decent mane; one other, however, has a strange look, a mixture of a feline body with an almost porcine head, no doubt construed as a 'leopard' by some of the sources. The wooden cover on the font is octagonal and plain, probably Victorian. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: TM2208334670] notes: "Parish church. Probably C15 chancel which was shortened circa 1782. According to Whites Directory of Suffolk 'Rebuilt 1837' [...] C15 stone octagonal font, bowl with carved lions and angels alternating with Tudor roses in sunk panels, carved roses to soffit, 4 lions against the stem with buttresses between, 2 square base slabs with chamfered corners."