Ilketshall St. Margaret

Suckling (1846-1848) writes: "On the 3rd of March, twenty-sixth of Queen Elizabeth [1584?] the parish church of the said parish decently and orderly repaired", quiting the latter statement form a 16th-century document which attested to the welfare of the church and its parishioners; about the church in his own time Suckling adds: "The fabric is probably very ancient [...] The interior is neat, and reputably kept, but the fittings far inferior to what they should be, in a church so well endowed as this is." Suckling (ibid.) notes the first recorded vicar of this church as William Aleman, in 1313, but does not mention the font inside the church. There is no mention of this font in Parker (1855) either. Illustrated in Knott (2008). Baptismal font consisting of an octagonal basin with hanging shields alternating with large floral motifs on the sides, the panel frames decorated with little rosettes; angel heads at the corners of the underbowl, floral motifs on the lower level of the chamfer; the pedestal base is the usual octagonal-to-square shape of this design in East Anglia, but it has only four buttresses, instead of the usual combination of lions and buttresses (or woodwoses). The wooden cover is box-like, octagonal, with carved sides. The font has been whitewashed. The font is similar, though not identical, to the others in this group of Ilketshall churches [cf. corresponding entries in the Index]