Babcary / Babachay [Domesday] / Babecari

There are two entries for Babcary [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST5628/babcary/] [accessed 31 January 2018], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. Phelps (1836) writes: "The font is richly sculptured". In Kelly's Directory of 1883: "font of the fifteenth century". Described in Pevsner (1958): "Octagonal, Perp[endicular], with panelled stem, panelled underside of the bowl, and quatrefoils on the bowl." The sides of the octagonal basin have floral motifs inscribed in large quatrefoils; the underbowl chamfer is very tall and becomes narrow at the base, much narrower than most Perpendicular fonts, to a small ring moulding and the very slender pedestal base; the underbowl and the stem are decorated with trefoiled arches or windows, two per side on the underbowl, single ones on the stem. The wooden cover is octagonal and flat, with metal decoration and ring handle. [NB: description based on a photograph by ChurchCrawler in http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/SOM/Babcary/HolyCross2.html [accessed 16 September 2009]]. The Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 10, 2011) notes: "The church was recorded in 1200 [...] It was rebuilt in a simple Perpendicular style during the 14th century or early 15th [...] [in the] restoration between 1875 and 1877 [...] The Perpendicular font was reset on a new base".