Suffield / Sulfelle / Sulfulle

Neither of the two entries in Domesday for "Sulfelle" and "Sulfulle", transcribed and translated by Blomefiel (1805-1810) mentions either church or cleric in it; this same author (ibid.) writes: "The Church is a rectory, dedicated to St. Margaret. In the reign of Edward I.[1272-1307] Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk was patron; the rector had a manse and 6 acres of land [...] Near the font, a gravestone with a brass plate". The present font is described in Pevsner & Wilson (1997): "Octagonal. Demi-figures of angels against the underside holding shields with the Instruments of the Passion." Noted and illustrated in Knott (2005), who comments: "the panels of the font are cemented over". The font is of the type in which the octagonal basin tapers off onto the octagonal stem without a break; in this case the panels of the basin are totally blank within the moulded sides; the angels and the rose motifs of the underbowl apear as either new or re-carved; the font appears either modern or totally re-tooled [NB: if the font is 15th-century, are the panels cemented over, as Knott suggests, or have they been re-carved? -- It is not common to find the Passion emblems on the underbowl with blank basin sides -- we have no information on the font from the 13th-century church here].