Longhope / Hope

There is an entry for Lonhope [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SO6819/longhope/] [accessed 7 December 2018] but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SO6845719798] notes: "Parish church: C12, C14, C15, C19 restoration"; it mentions no font in it. The entry for this patish in the Victoria County History (Gloucester, vol. 12, 2010) notes: "Longhope's church, which was dedicated to All Saints by the mid 12th century, (fn. 710) was built perhaps in the late 11th century and comprised chancel, nave, and west tower [...] After the Restoration Smith was ejected from the vicarage and was succeeded by George Ditton in 1664. [...] It was possibly in that period when a large mortar was installed in the church for use as a font in place of one destroyed before the Restoration"; the VCH entry further notes that a new font was introduced during the 1858 renovations to the church, and cites Fryer and Verey & Brooks [cf. infra] on the destination of the old mortar, first in a pig farm, later as base of a cross in the churchyard. The Longhope Parish site [http://www.longhopevillage.co.uk/history/] [accessed 2 November 2008] notes: "The font of All Saints deserves a special mention because it has suffered much over the years. The original was destroyed during the civil war when the Long Parliament demanded that all fonts be destroyed in 1645. Following the Restoration of 1660, a substitute font had to be found. A domestic mortar was donated to the church to fulfill this role [5] and remained there until 1860 when the present font was built. That was not the end of the mortar, though. It was stored at Court Farm (behind the church) until the death of the churchwarden, when it was sold to a farmer at Southside, May Hill [5]. He used the mortar for many years as a pig trough, which was broken on one side to allow a piglet to be able to feed. The farmer eventually returned the mortar to the church where it rested on top of an old saxon cross socket and some pilasters [5]. Sadly, the mortar was stolen in the 1980s." The font in use at present [November 2008] is a modern one, probably Victorian: an octagonal basin with foiled panels inscribing blank shields, raised on a plain octagonal stem. Flat wooden cover, octagonal and plain.