Stiffkey No. 1 / Stivecai / Stivekey

There are four entries for Stiffkey [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF9743/stiffkey/] [accessed 12 December 2013], the largest part of which mentions a church in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes; "In this village are two churches, St. John Baptist's and St. Mary's; that there was a church at the conquest, endowed with 30 acres, appears from Domesday book. This church belonged to Ralph, son of Ivo, and so to the honour of Clare, and was afterwards (if not then) dedicated to St. John Baptist. It was a rectory [...] The other church was also a rectory, dedicated to St. Mary". Blomefield (ibid.) names the first recorded rectors for both churches; in St. John's, Robert Turtevile occurs rector in the 13th of Edward II" [i.e., 1320]; and, in St. Mary's, 1310, Walter Alexander instituted, presented by Audom. de Valentia Earl of Pembroke", but the earliest date for St. Mary's noted in this source is a reference to "the advowson of St. Mary's church in this town" being involved in a grant dated to 1251. The entry for Stiffkey in Wilson's gazetteer of 1870-1872 [www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5344] [accessed 12 December 2013] reads: "There were two churches; and the one is in ruins,-the other old." Kelly's Directory of 1883 notes: "The church of St. Mary, which formerly stood in the same churchyard [St. John the Baptist's], is now in ruins". We have no information on the original font from the 13th or 14th century church. The Parish web site [www.northnorfolkcentral.co.uk/balestiffkey/stiffkey/Tour.html] [accessed 6 July 2009] informs that "The font is a modern memorial consecrated in 1953", and shows a stone font of octagonal shape located at the west end, beneath the tower. [cf. Index entry for Stiffkey St. Mary's]