West Bilney / Benelai

The entry for "Benelai" in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TF7115/west-bilney/] [accessed 6 November 2013] mentions neither church nor cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church is dedicated to St. Cecilia [...] Hugh occurs rector in the reign of Henry III." [i.e., 1216-1272]; his list of rectors stops when West Bilney was set as a vicarage instead in 1341. The present font is described in White's Directory of 1883: "the font is of the Perpendicular period and ornamented with quatrefoils". In Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Simple, octagonal, Perp[endicular], with encircled quatrefoils." The church guide in the East & West Bilney Community Project [www.eastwinchandwestbilney.co.uk/history/the-church] [accessed 6 November 2013] notes: "The octagonal font bears the Howard arms and those of Sir John Howard II wife, Alice Bosco. It would have been given by them or by their son Robert, who died in 1388 before his father, and is older than the apparent date of the nave architecture. The font cover was designed by the great church architect Sir Ninian Comper, and erected in memory of Rev. Alvis, who had longed to see it replaced. A complete description of it hangs by the tower arch. It is supposed to be a faithful copy of the medieval cover, illustrated by Weever, but in fact both he and Lilly depicted it as shorter with straight sides. What the original colours were no one knows, and he combination of gilding, blue and white is typical of Comper’s work." This same source states that the font was a gift of the Howard family. All the panels of the basin contain inscribed quatrefoils, they alternate between those with floral motifs in them and those without; braded underbowl moulding; deeply-carved niches in the pedestal base; the moulded octagonal lower base appears modern.