Stow Bardolph / Stou / Stow Bardolf

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes of Stow-Bardolph: "On the deposition of Turchetel, who was a great and powerful lord, in the reign of the Confessor, King William I. granted it with many other towns of that lord, to Hermerus de Ferrers. Before the conquest there were [ennumerated here the land, beasts, people, etc.] All this was valued then at 8l. and there was a church endowed with 53 acres of land, valued at 3s. [...] The Church of Stow Bardolph is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and consists of a nave and a chancel, and a broad, but low, foursquare tower built of carr and rag stone, with buttresses of brick, in which hang five large tuneable bells. [...] The nave is in length about 47 feet and in breadth about 24; the roof is arched or camerated, plaistered, and covered with reed; at the west end is a neat stone font, with a cover of oak carved and painted, on which is this shield"[NB: the shield is illustrated in Blomefield]. The present font, like the cover, is modern; it consists of an octagonal basin raised on an octagonal stem and splaying lower base, raised on a quadrangular plinth. Towering wooden cover of open-work. [NB: the base of the tower is said to be 12th-century, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]