Swainsthorpe / Sueinesthorp / Swains-Thorp / Swainsthorp / Sweynesthorp / Sweynsthorp / Thorp / Torp

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "At the Confessor's survey, was known by the name of Thorp only, and before the Conquest began to be called Swains-Thorp, from the swains or country men, that inhabited there. Ralf Stalra, Bishop Stigand, and the antecessor of Godric the sewer, had it at the first survey, and it belonged to Tovi at the second, all but Godric's part, which was then of 2s. 8d. annual value, and belonged to him. [...] The whole was then a mile long, and as much broad, and paid 11d. geld. The rents of the manor were 29s. per annum, and one of the churches had 23 acres of glebe" ["i. ecclesia xxiii. acr." in Domesday (fol. 279)]. Blomefield (ibid.) adds: "The church of St. Mary was demolished at the Reformation, it being in a decaying way ever since its consolidation to the present church of St. Peter; for in 1503, it was called the old church", and gives a description of St. Peter's: "St. Peter's church is 39 feet long, and 22 broad, the north isle is 34 feet long and 12 broad, and the chancel is about 22 feet long, and as much broad; the whole is tiled, except the nave, which is leaded; the steeple is about 50 feet high, is round at bottom and sexangular at top, including four bells", and names "Walter" the first recorded rector, in 1202. Pevsner & Wilson (1999) note: "C13. Octagonal bowl with the usual two blind arches to each face, re-cut. Eight columns orbit a central shaft below." Knott (2007) is not entirely convinced of the basin date: "The font is in the style of those 13th century Purbeck marble ones you find so often in East Anglia, octagonal with sixteen arcades. It may be a recut old one, but is as likely entirely Victorian, as is the collonade on which it sits." The basin is completely flat at the bottom, and sits on the columnar base described above; it is no possible to determine whether the original basin had the same decorative pattern before the re-cutting; both the octagonal lower base and the quadrangular plinth are modern.