Melksham / Melkesam / Milsham

The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 7, 1953) notes: "At the time of the Domesday Survey the advowson of the church at Melksham was probably held by the king [...] In 1200 John [i.e., King John] granted the church to the Bishop of Salisbury [...] The present building was probably begun in the 12th century, [...] In 1845 the church was restored [...] the alabaster font and the carved oak pulpit were added in 1906." The VCH reference to "The church of St. Barnabas, Beanacre, in Melksham Without" includes a font: "The font, of late-14thcentury work, came from the parish church." Noted in Buck (1951) as a group of octagonal baptismal fonts with simple plain mouldings and dating from the late 12th or early 13th century in the county of Wiltshire, at Alderton, Blunsdon St. Andrew, Broad Hinton, Collingbourne Kingston, Corston, Fonthill Bishop, Idmiston, Lydiard Tregoze, Marden and Melksham. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry's (1975) entry for Beanacre St. Barnabas' church : "In the church plain Norman font from Melksham".