Wheatacre / Hwateaker / Wateaker / Wheatacre All Saints / Whetacre / Whitacre

In the Domesday entry for "Wateaker", transcribed and translated in Blomefield (1805-1810), "there were 2 churches endowed with 60 acres", presumably there earlier when this place belonged to "Toret, a thane of King Edward". Blomefield (ibid.) gives information on both churches: "Here were two churches; one dedicated to St. Peter, a rectory valued at 11 marks, the rector had a manse with 3 acres of land [...] This is called Whetacre Burgh [...] The other church is dedicated to All-Saints. John de Bumstede is said to have had an interest in the patronage, but in the beginning of Edward II. the family of Baynard; the rector had then a beautiful manse"; the names of the rectors recorded for both churches are listed until the time Blomefield visited here. [NB: the ruins of old St. Peter's may now be near th parish church of St. Mary, in Burgh St. Peter, Norfolk. [cf. Index entry for Burgh St. Peter]. The present font is described in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "C15. Octagonal, with four lions against the stem, four flowers and four shields (Instruments of the Passion, emblem of the Trinity, Cross, three crowns) against the bowl. The font has been painted in the C20 [cf. infra].- Font cover. In the exhuberant Arts and Crafts mood. It mus be by Edmund Sedding c. 1905." Described and illustrated in Knott (2005): "although the colouring on the font has been renewed, it appears to match what is on the shaft. And the whole piece is not vandalised at all. This may simply be because, judging from its style, it was produced almost immediately before the Reformation. It has the little heads familiar from other fonts in this area, nearby Aldeby for example, but here they have become angels, and the panels are heraldic in style - it takes a second glance to see that one of the panels depicts the Instruments of the Passion, and another a Holy Trinity symbol facing the wall. The font has certainly been moved by the Victorians, so perhaps the instruments were previously less visible."