East Wretham / East Wrotham / Great Wretham / Great Wrotham / Wrancham / Wrantham / Wretham / Wrettingham / Wrotham Magna

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "E[ast, or Great Wrotham. Is so called because it lies most east of the three Wrothams [...] Wretham (or Wrotham Thorp) [...], Wertham, (or West Wrotham,) [...], and Weretham (or East Wrotham) [...] The Church is dedicated to St. Ethelbert", and names the first recorded rector of this church as "William de Dorso usto, (or Burnt-Arse) accolite", in 1321. [NB: Bolmefield uses the Domesday (fol. 231) spelling for the three different places -- none of the entries mentions a church or priest in them]. A modern baptismal font is noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Font. 1883, in C14 style, with cover." Noted and illustrated in Knott (2008), who notes: "the magnificent font cover, a near-replica from the 1880s of the early Perpendicular cover at Elsing". The GeoCities site for East Wretham [http://uk.geocities.com/joy.townsend@btopenworld.com/st_ethelbert.html] [accessed 9 September 2009] informs: "The font is of Corsham stone and the intricately carved cover, suspended on a lead counterweight, was designed by J.A.Reeve and based a mediaeval one at Elsing near Dereham. Its carving took two men nine months and it carries figures of seven saints." [NB: we have no information on the font from the original Norman church -- Wretham is said to have had a second medieval church (St. Nicholas?), but we have no information on its font either]