Priors Dean / Dean Prior / Dene / Ladene / Priors Dene / Priorsdeane

No individual entry found for Priors Dean in the Domesday survey. Hervey (1891) writes of the appalling and unsafe state of the church in the early-19th century, and on the 1856 renovation in which the old font was removed and a new one installed: "The old font was without any decided character, a rough stone with a vein of sand running through it; a new one was therefore provided of Bath stone, octagonal, on a cylindrical shaft, standing on two steps. The old font was buried in the north west corner of the churchyard, in a line with the porch." [NB: Hervey's description is not detailed enough to assume that the old font was the original]. The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 4, 1911) notes: "The church of unknown dedication is a little red-tiled and plastered building [...] The nave [...] is of the 12th century, probably c. 1120–30, and the chancel, which has a very marked deviation to the north from the axis of the nave, appears to be a 13th-century rebuilding [...] The font, near the door, is a modern imitation of 12th-century style". The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SU7255030025] reports "There is a 'Norman' font of 1856", their quotation marks indication it is not Norman, but in the style; the HE entry further notes that the present building is a 1856 restoration of an "Aisleless Romanesque building, of possible Saxon origin". According to The Benefice of Greatham, Empshott, Hawkley and Priors Dean web site [http://www.petersfield.uk.com/greatham.htm#pr] [accessed 1 September 2008], the present font of this tiny ancient church is a modern reproduction of a Norman font [NB: this source dates the church to the Norman period "on a Saxon foundation", but we have no information on the original font of this church]