Ripple nr. Tewksbury / Repell / Rippel / Rippell / Ryppull

There is entry for Ripple [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SO8737/ripple/] [accessed 30 September 2014]; it reports two priests but mentions no church, though there probably was one there. Miller (1890) reports a modern font in this handsome church of Norman origins. The Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 3, 1913) notes: "The church of St. Mary, Ripple, may have existed at the time of the Norman Conquest, having possibly been served by the two priests here, mentioned in the Domesday Survey. [...] It is probable that a church has stood on this site since the end of the 11th century. A fragment of the sculptured head of a small round-arched light, now built into the north wall of the nave, cannot well be later. The earliest details now in situ are the late 12th-century south doorway and the jambs of a blocked north doorway of the same date." The VCH (ibid.) reports the 12th-century base on the font at nearby Queenhill [cf. Index entry]. A font here is noted in Pevsner (1968): "Font. Of c.1300, octagonal, of the Purbeck type, but the blank arches pointed-trefoiled. The font was re-tooled in 1851." In Brooks & Pevsner (2007). Edward F Gray, in his 'Church Building: History of Ripple Church' [http://stmarysripple.weebly.com/building.html] [accessed 5 October 2014] writes: "The Font may at first glance appear modern. It is, however, really pre-Reformation. Combining records from a Church inventory, from Noakes’ account of a visit here, and from the bill of a Ripple stonemason in the Church accounts, it is evident that the font was found in a cowshed where it was used as a drinking trough; cleaned, re-worked and partly re-pieced by John Brush, 10 May 1851; and replaced in the Church instead of the font now in Earl’s Croome Church. The font cover was made by a Twyning carpenter, John Housman. On careful examination it will be seen that Brush’s repairs included work on the rims of the font where an earlier font cover had been prised off, leaving rude scars. Various authorities tell us that fonts were lidded and padlocked before the Reformation to prevent the water, not often renewed, being stolen as an ingredient for witches’ nostrums. Other signs of early origin are the tracery adornments round the font which correspond with those of the two windows near it. E Tyrrell Green explains that 14th and 15th century fonts exhibit this peculiarity."