Wiggenhall St. Mary Magdalen / Wigenhale / Wigrehale

There are two entries for Wiggenhall [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/wiggenhall-st-germans-st-mary-magdalen-st-mary-th/] [accessed 9 December 2013]; the largest part had Ralph Baynar as tenent-in-chief at the time, the smaller one was in the lordship of Hermer de Ferrers [aka Hemerus de Ferrariis, etc.]; neither entry mentions a church or cleric in it. Blomefield (1805-1810) appears to have missed the Domesday entry for the larger part: "The whole that the survey mentions of them is this; that Hermeru (fn. 1) de Ferrarijs had invaded or ejected a freeman out of half a carucate of land that he held in Wigrehale in King Edward's time valued at 3s. per ann. and of him he had not the protection, was not lord of the fee; (fn. 2) and which of the Wigenhales this was does not appear. The reason of this must be that the Wigenhales being parts or members of several adjoining lordships and villages, are accounted for and valued under them, (as is frequently found in the survey) or that the greatest part of the Wigenhales were at that time again overflowed, a standing pool or lake, and rendered quite unprofitable and neglected by their old lords or owners." Blomefield (ibid.) reports that the "patronage of the church of St. Mary Magdalen [...] was gifted by the the lord of the town "by deed, sans date, in the beginning of Henry the Third's reign to the prior of Castleacre", and the first recorded vicar, "John de Pagrave, vicar, presented by the prior and convent" in 1227, eleven years after the coronation of Henry III. Blomefield (ibid.) further notes that this church. But, previous to the vicarage there had been a rectorate here, and Blomefield (ibid.) reports that "William de Constantiis was rector of this church about the year 1200, in the time of John of Oxford Bishop of Norwich", establishing the date of the original church here sometime between 1086 and 1200. Blomefield (ibid.) describes the church here: "The Church of St. Mary Magdalen of Wigenhale, is a regular good building, consisting of a nave, a north and south isle, with its porch, and a chancel, all covered with lead; at the west end stands a four square tower of stone." The present font here is illustrated in Knott (2006). The baptismal font consists of an octagonal basin with plain vertical sides and a moulded underbowl chamfer, raised on an octagonal pedestal base made of blocks; raised on an octagonal plinth. The wooden cover is a low-dome octagon with moulded sides on the lower part. The only original part appears to be the basin, the rest is probably 19th-century.