Dinnington nr. Crewkerne / Dinnitone / Dunintone

There are two entries for this Dinnington [variable spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/ST4012/dinnington/] [accessed 26 February 2018], neither of which mentions cleric or church in it. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 4, 1978) notes: "A church had evidently been established in Dinnington by c. 1207 [...] The church of ST. NICHOLAS, so dedicated by 1348 [...] The building was much restored in 1863 but the features appear to reproduce the original detail [...] The 13th-century font has been recut." The CRSBI (2018) reports a Romanesque font in this church: "The font is located in NE corner of SW part of church defined by central aisle & an aisle from the S door. It is in hamstone or similar & in good condition: clean & tidy (just one of the rim billets cut out), except that the moulded base is somewhat disfigured by damp mould. The font surface is finely polished, there being no obvious signs of tooling. The substantial square plinth has the unusual feature of an overhanging upper edge. Unfortunately, but not too disastrously, a small portion has been cut off to make room for flooring timbers. The moulded cylindrical base of the stem is a strong & handsome example in the attic form. The scotia is very boldly recessed to make a water-holding profile. At the top of the cylindrical stem, articulating the junction with the bowl, there is necking in the form of a toroid ring. The bowl carries around its middle a strong cable in very good condition. The top edge of the bowl has been neatly cut back at well-chosen intervals to make billets. The internal face of the cuts is at a chamfer angle, so that the billets are triangular in profile. I know of no local analogues for this decoration. There is no lead, although there is clear provision for it in the rebating of the inner edge of the rim. The internal sides of the bowl drop to a flat bottom. The external sides taper in at the bottom. [...] The EH [English Heritage] list description describes the font as 'apparently C13, possibly recut,' and it is not mentioned in Pevsner. It appears to this author [Robin Downes?] to be typically Norman and 12thc. There is no clear indication of much, if any, recutting, and if this has been done, the original design has probably been respected." Baptismal font consisting of round basin with tapering sides and a round underbowl, raised on a cylindrical stem and a moulded circularlower base of the type made to collect the water from the bowl. The basin is now very strange, with a crenellated upper rim, and a very thick rope moulding around its middle. It is probably of the 13th century [cf. supra], but re-cut and re-tooled most likely in the 19th century [ibid.] The wooden cover is flat and round, with metal decoration and ring handle; probably 19th-century.