Barnby / Barnaby / Barnebei] / Barneby

There are two entries for Barnby in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TM4789/barnby/] [accessed 20 February 2023] one of which eports "1 church. 0.66 church lands" in it. Suckling (1846-1848) writes: "The church of Barnaby St. John was granted to the Priory of Butley soon after its foundation in 1171", and gives Petrus de Skarning, in 1304, as its first recorded rector. There is no mention of a font in Suckling's entry for this parish. It is listed in Cautley (1982) as a baptismal font of the 13th century. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: TM4807389938] notes: "Parish church. Medieval, restored 1882 [...] C13 octagonal font bowl of Purbeck marble, with 2 shallow blank arches to each face." Noted in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble, Polygonal I Type (Octagonal): no details [source given: H. Munro Cautley, Suffolk Chrchues, 1937]. The font consists of an octagonal basin with tapering sides decorated with shallow blind pointed arches; raised on a broad central shaft and eight outer colonnettes, the latter painted in bright blue, red and gold (modern paint, and the columns themselves are probably a modern replacement); on an octagonal lower base of three volumes, most of it a modern replacement; on an octagonal plinth, also modern. The wooden font cover is octagonal and almost flat; date unknown.