Hedenham / Hedenaham

There is an entry for Hedenham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TM3193/hedenham/] [accessed 4 March 2014], but it mentons neither church nor cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The church is a rectory dedicated to St. Mary; John, the rector, petitioned Pope Innocent [...] In the 7th of Henry III. a fine was levied between Thomas, son of Gilbert de Ilketeshale and Hugh Bigot Earl of Norfolk, of the advowson of a moiety of this church granted to Thomas, and his heirs [...] John de Hustwait, rector, was succeeded in 1306, by John de Norwich". [NB: the "John, the rector" who petitioned Pope Innocent cannot be identified with the firts recorded rector, John de Hustwait, as the latter would have been in office ca. 1300, whereas the former would have lived during the papacy of Innocent III, which ended in 1216. The levying of a fine related to the advowson of the church in Henry III's year would have taken place in 1223. Both dates indicated a church in existence here between 1086 and 1216]. The present font is described in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Font. Octagonal. Eight shafts against the stem, shields and flowers in cusped panels against the bowl." The font consists of an octagonal basin with deeply-carved panels containing Tudor roses and blank hanging shields, inscribed in cusped frames, alternating around the basin; the underbowl has defaced bulges at the angles, that may have been heads or angels, with a variety of motifs on the sides [NB: the metifs and patterns on the basin are two sharp to be original; they have been either re-tooled or, more likely, re-carved; the base of clustered columns appears original; the octagonal plinth and the flat octagonal wooden cover are modern.