Mundham No. 1 / Mundaham / Mundhaham / Mundham Magna / Munhaham

There is a total of thirteen entries [wariant spelling] for Mundham in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TM3298/mundham/] [accessed 4 March 2014], one of which mentions a church and church lands in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "Here were 2 parishes, one called St. Peter's, from its church, also in some old writings Mundham Magna; it was a rectory"; the earliest direct reference to this church In Blomefield (ibid.) appears to be the first recorded rector of it, "John occurs rector in the 14th of Edward I" [i.e., 1286]. The other church, St. Ethelbert's, appears to have been the parish church of Mundham Parva: "In the reign of Edward I. Sir Robert de Schelton, was patron of the rectory of St. Ethelbert's church of Mundham Parva, [...] had a manse, but no land", the latter detail probably suggesting that the church noted in the Domesday survey as having some land was St. Peter's. Curiously, though, the earliest specific reference in Blomefield to any church here is actually to St. Ethelbert's: "Sir Walter de Senges, lord of Seething, whose lordship extended into this town, gave by deed, sans date, to Sibeton abbey in Suffolk, lands here, to which deed Sir William de Senges, Roger de Diclebur, Robert de Hedenham, &c. were witnesses. This Sir William de Senges confirmed by his deed, sans date, about the 30th of Henry III [i.e., 1246] and we find this family to have an interest in the church. Richard de Seinges, by fine, conveyed his right in the advowson of St. Ethelbert's church, to Ralph de Schelton." Bell (1927) lists an 1840 water-colour drawing of this font by Miles Edmund Cotman in the Bulwer Collection. Pevsner & Wilson (1999) note: "Fonts. Under the tower a disused square Purbeck marble font with flat arches. Norman. The other font C19." The old font is badly damaged, with through cracks and loose pieces; it consists of a quadrangular basin with a faint arcade of five round arches on each side; the inner well is round; there is a chamfer at the underbowl, but part ot it is broken; there is no lead lining now; the shape of the underbowl appears to indicate that it originally had a columnar base; it is now raised on a plain cylindrical shaft that could very well have nothing to do with the original base. The surface of the stone is very worn and appears to have been exposed to the elements for a long time. The modern font noted in Pevsner & Wilson above is a Victorian rendering of an early font: bucket-shaped basin decorated with a single rope moulding, raised on a central shaft and four slender colonnettes with moulded capitals and bases, on a round plinth. The wooden cover is flat, round and plain; also modern. [cf. Index entry for Mundham No. 2 for St. Ethelbert's].