Tharston / Steres Town / Sterestuna / Sterstuna / Testun / Tharston / Thurston / Thurstun

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "at the Conquest [...] The church had 40 acres of glebe [...] The advowson of the rectory of the church of St. Mary the Virgin at Tharston was given in King Stephen's time [i.e., 1135-1154], to the priory of Pentney in Norfolk [...] The church hath a square steeple and four bells, the nave is leaded, the chancel and north porch are tiled." Blomefield (ibid.) names "Roger" as the first recorded rector here, in 1273. The present font is described in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "C15, and probably by the same carver as nearby Morningthorpe [cf. Index entry]. Against the stem four lions, against the bowl four flowers, two angels and two lions." Noted and illustrated in Kontt (2008): " 15th century fonts in East Anglia commonly depict lions and angels, and there is often something rather formulaic about them, as if they were mass produced. However, the font here is a delight. Angels, lions and Tudor roses alternate around the bowl, but all are slightly different, as if carved locally by a very skilled mason. The angel facing east is my favourite, the late medieval style giving his eyes the appearance of him wearing goggles, and his hair a WWII flying helmet. Beside him, a lion looks pensively down, full of character. The lions around the base are more familiar, proud East Anglian symbols. Pevsner [cf. supra] thought that the carver was also responsible for the font at Morningthorpe. It is an outstanding art object, worthy of a visit on its own." The angels appear to be holding blank shields; the underbowl has the usual angel heads at the angles and floral motifs on the sides of the chamfer that are characteristic of this design; on an octagonal plinth. The wooden cover is octagonal and flat, with moulded edges and a ball-on-a-spike finial. [NB: we have no information on the font from the Domesday-time church here].