Middleton nr. King's Lynn / Middeltuna / Mideltuna / Midletuna / Midyltone

The Domesday book has five entries for Middleton [variant spellings], but makes no mention of church or cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The church was a rectory valued at 8 marks, but appropriated to the priory of Blackburg, by John of Oxford Bishop of Norwich, in the reign of King Richard I. on the calends of May, 1191, and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. [...] The Church of Middleton is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and is a regular pile, consisting of a nave, a north and south isle, with a chancel; the nave, north and south isles are covered with lead, and the chancel with reed, and has a square tower with one bell." The present font, located at the west end of the nave, is modern; it is of classical Perpendicular design, and consists of an octagonal basin decorated with quatrefoiled panels, a graded underbowl chamfer, an octagonal stem with trefoiled niches or windows on the sides, and a moulded lower base, also octagonal; raised on an octagonal plinth. The wooden cover is also modern, actually later than the font itself, probably 20th-century; it is a stylised version of the classical octagonal pyramid cover design. [NB: we have no information on the original font of this 12th-century church]