Benthall / Benehale

There is an entry for Benthall [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SJ3913/benthall/] [accessed 7 July 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Shropshire, vol. 10, 1998) notes: "Benthall had a chapel by 1221[…] The medieval chapel was dedicated to St. Brice, bishop of Tours (d. 444) …] It was 'burnt down to the ground', probably in 1645, and 'wholly demolished'; afterwards no warden was appointed until the building of a new church was undertaken […] A new church of St. Bartholomew, so known by c. 1740, […] was built in or soon after 1667 […] probably on the medieval chapel's foundations […] The font may be of c. 1670". Newman & Pevsner (12006) describe it as "a plain cylinder, presumably of 1668". There may have been a font here since early times, as baptisms appear to have been common in the old chapel, and the VCH points out: "Baptisms and marriages in the chapel became more frequent from the 1570s, [...] perhaps as the mining population increased [...] The earliest register begins in 1640". [NB: we have no information on the earlier font of the old church].