Waxham / Wacstanest / Wactanesham / Waxham Magna / Waxham Parva

Of the five entries for Waxham in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG4426/waxham/] [accessed 16 January 2014] two report a church in them. Blomefield (1805-1810) reports "a church endowed with 18 acres" in the part held by Count Alan of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, but Blomefield writes: "There were formerly two towns of this name, one called Waxham Magna or Waxham St. John's, and Waxham Parva, or Waxham St. Margaret; great part of both these made up Earl Alan's manor, of which the ancient and noble family of Inghams were soon after the conquest enfeoffed [...] The Church of Great Waxham was a rectory, dedicated to St. John [...] The church of Waxham Parva was dedicated to St. Margaret", and, as late as 1733, "Thomas Blofield presented, as lord, to the churches of St. John and St. Margaret of Waxham." These two churches must have merged soon after 1384, as only one rector is mentioned after that date. The present font is noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1997) as a Perpendicular font with quatrefoils. Noted and illustrated in Knot (2006), who points out the green damp covering a good part of the stone. The font consists of an octagonal basin with vertical sides decorated with large quatrefoils, raised on an octagonal stem with trefoiled arches on the sides, a splaying lower base and a two-step plinth. The wooden cover is octagonal, flat and plain. [NB: we have no information from the fonts of two early churches here].