Forncett Forncet Magna/ Forncet St. Mary / Fornesseta / Mideltown

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "Forncet, called sometimes to distinguish it from the several berewicks or ends, Mideltown [...] in the time of the Confessor [i.e., before 1066] belonged to Bishop Stigand, of whom Coleman held it; it had then only St. Mary's church and 15 acres of glebe belonging to it [...] the parish of Forncet St. Peter, which though not known by that name, in the Confessor's time was only a berwic to Forncet, and had then only one church, now called Forncet St. Mary, to which St. Peter is, and always was, a chapel of ease; though it hath all the privileges of baptism, burial, and administration of the sacrament, as well as the mother-church. It was founded just before the Conqueror's time in Tuanatun berwic, probably by Oslac [...] and his tenants, who then held this part; for Domesday says, it had 60 acres of the alms [...] of many." And, later in the same source: "Here are two churches now in use, which were given by Roger Bigot to the monks of Thetford,[...] who released that gift very early; these churches were annexed very soon, for I never find them presented to separately: though Domesday makes them both parish churches, governed by one rector, who then had in their right, a house and 40 acres of glebe. They were valued as one benefice [...] the rectory always paying double institution fees, shows it to have been an ancient consolidation; though for many ages St. Peter's church hath been esteemed as a chapel of ease to St. Mary, the mother-church; [...] The whole town of Forncet St. Mary, or Forncet Magna, with Forncet St. Peter, or Parva Forncet, paid 3l. 10s. clear to every tenth." The present font in this church is noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1999) as an octagonal font of the 15th century. The font consists of an octagonal basin with vertical sides decorated with blank panels; floral (?) motifs on the underbowl angles; moulding at the top of the octagonal stem, trefoiled arches or windows on the sides; octagonal moulded lower base with floral motifs. [NB: we have no information on the font of the Domesday-time church here -- we have no information on the font at Forncett St. Mary's -- the font at St. Edmund's, Forncett End, is a copy of a 14th-century type]. The church of St. Edmund, at Forncett End, is modern.