Metfield / Medefield / Metefield

No individual entry found for Metfield in the Domesday survey. A font in the church at "Medefield" / "Metefield" is mentioned in Blomefield (1805-1810): "In 1428, Sir John Jermy, Knt. and Margaret Mounteney his wife, owned this and Withersdale manors; and he it was, that rebuilt this church and manor-house, where he placed the matches of his family in the windows; and his own arms are carved several times on the timber of the roof, and are still in several windows, and in stone on the font; he died in 1487". This church is noted in White's Directory of 1844 (p. 467) but not the font. The font is noted in Parker (1855): "Font, an octagon, with the emblems of the Evangelists round the bowl." [NB: four of the sides are decorated with demi-figures of angels holding charged shields, the other four have lions sejant-gardant, not the Evangelists]. Listed in Cautley (1982) in a group of 15th-century heraldic fonts in Suffolk. Illustrated in Knott (2007); the font is of the East Anglian type that alternates angels holding shields with gardant lions on the sides of the octagonal basin, the underbowl chamfer decorated with angels on the upper level and rosettes on the lower, four sedente lions alternating with buttresses on the square stem; there are traces of paint on the stone surface. The wooden cover is octagonal and flat with a slight overlap.