East Carleton No. 1 / Carleton by Norwich / Carleton Curson / Carleton Curzon / Carletuna / Karletuna / Norwich Carleton

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "C[arleton.] Commonly called Carleton Curson, from its lords of that name, [...] for distinction it is sometimes called Norwich Carleton, or Carleton by Norwich, and very often East-Carleton: as there are two manors, so there were also two parochial churches, standing within about 50 yards of one another, with a highway only between their churchyards; that now standing, is dedicated to St. Mary" [cf. Index entry for East Carleton No.2 for the font at the second church, St. Peter's]. Blomefield (ibid.) cites the Domesday entry in fol. 136, in which two churches with thirty-eight acres of land are reported [= "ii. ecclesie xxxviii. acr. [...] In Carletuna"]. The first recorded rector for St. Mary's is given in Blomefield (ibid.) as "John Dalle, alias Hekker", in the year 1498, and the church is described: "St. Mary's church hath a square tower half fallen down, one bell, the nave and chancel are tiled, and the north isle leaded." The present font is noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "C15, octagonal; trefoiled panels to plinth". Illustrated in Knott (2006), and, as he indicates, Pevsner cannot be right on the dating. Indeed, Pevsner & Wilson (ibid.) cannot be right on the font. It is obviously a modern font, decorated with blank shields on the basin and piping on the stem, stands on a narrow plain plinth, that appears modern as well. [NB: we have no information on the font of the ca. 10886 church here].