Shouldham No. 1 / Sculdeham / Sculdham

Blomefield (1805-1810) remarks the the words "In alio Sculdeham", which appears in the Domesday entry that reports two churches here, "shows that here was Shouldham Magna and Parva". Of those two churches onely one remains now [cf. Index entry for the disappeared church at Shouldham No. 2]. Blomefield notes; "Shouldham All-Saints. At this time there is but one church standing in Shouldham, at the east end of the town in the fields, which as I conceive, is the church of All-Saints. It consists of a nave, in length about 69 feet, and in breadth about 24, and on the south side of this nave is a small chapel, about 15 feet in length, and 10 in breadth, [...] At the east end of this nave is the chancel, about 34 feet in length, and about 25 feet in breadth; the roof of this is of oak, as is that of the nave, which is boarded between the spars, and covered with reed. At the west end of the nave stands a four-square broad tower of rag stone, &c. with which the church is built, coped with quoins of free stone, and embattled with brick; in this tower hang four bells." The present font is noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Font. Dull C14 octagonal model." The font consists of an octagonal basin with plain vertical sides, a plain concave underbowl chamfer; raised on an octagobal pedestal base, plain except for a single moulding at the top; double plinth, both volumes polygonal, both with kneeling stone protrusion at the back. The wooden cover is octagonal, flat and plain; appears modern. [NB: we have no information on the font from the original Domesday-time church here].