Stoke St. Mary / Stoc / Stoche

There is an entry for Stoke [St Mary] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST2622/stoke-st-mary/] [accessed 8 July 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. Wade & Wade (1929) state that "Its church (restored) is prettily situated, but contains nothing to interest the antiquarian". An octagonal baptismal font is described and illustrated in the Stoke St. Mary Village web site [www.stokestmary.net/stmary10.htm] [accessed 6 April 2008]: "The 15th Century Font. From a Water-Colour by S. G. Tovey. (1846). The font apparently stands by the blocked south doorway of the nave (see south-east view)." This same source, however, adds that of the "Hamstone font […] only the base is now original". The font consists now of an octagonal basin with vertical sides, every other side decorated with a deeply-carved quatrefoil-in-a- circle motif, plain underbowl chamfer; the base, said to be original, is octagonal with angle pegs that make it square at the bottom. The present wooden cover is octagonal and flat, with an added wooden carving on its top; it appears modern. The cover illustrated in the old watercolour is octagonal, flat and plain, with a turned knob finial. Not mentioned in Pevsner (1958).