Sedgeford / Secheford / Segeford / Setesford / Setesforda

There is an entry for Sedgeford [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF7036/sedgeford/] [accessed 8 April 2014], but it mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church is dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of a nave, a north and south isle, a south transept, and a chancel covered with lead. There has been also a north transept, now in ruins, and has a round steeple with three bells. [...] It was anciently a rectory valued at 45 marks, and appropriated to the use of the cellarer of Norwich priory, [...] by John de Grey Bishop of Norwich, on the 11th of the calends of April, in the 5th year of his pontificate." [NB: De Gray elected to the see of Norwich in 1196, therefore the appropriation took place in 1201, some time after which the rectory would have become a vicarage. The first recorded vicar named in Blomefield (ibid.) was: "Ralph de Barsham was vicar before 1274". A church here must have existed by 1200]. White's Directory of 1883 notes: " The basin of the font is solid Purbeck marble." Pevsner & Wilson (1999) write: "Font. Square, C13, of Purbeck type, with four shallow blank arches and five supporting columns (centre one C19). Raised on steps." Noted and illustrated in Knott (2006). The font is of the table-top type, and consists of a square basin with vertical sides decorated with a blind arcade of four round arches on each side; it is raised on a central shaft [round and modern -- cf. supra] and four angle colonnettes with moulded capitals and bases; it is probably the shape of these, that may bring the date of the font into the 13th century; otherwise the shape and execution of the basin would point to the Transitional period of the late-12th century; quadrangular lower base. The font is raised on a three-step plinth. The wooden cover is octagonal and flat, with metal decorations and handle; modern.