Feckenham / Feccanhom / Feccheham / Fecham / Fecheham / Feckaham / Feckeham / Feckyngham / Fekkeham / Flechenham

There are two entries for Feckenham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP0061/feckenham/] [accessed 17 September 2014], one of which reports a priest and a church in it. Miller (1890) reports a medieval church re-built in 1866 and mentions no font in it. The Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 3, 1913) notes the church fabric goes back to the 12th century, but the present font and cover are modern. The churches of St. George and St. Mattias are 19th-century. English Heritage [Listing NGR: SP0091161648] (1954) reports a "C19 octagonal font" in this church. The modern font has octagonal basin, base and lower base, the sides of the basin decorated with symbols (cross, chi-rho, star of David, etc.); flat octagonal wooden cover with metal handles, also modern. An old undated postcard or photograph [cf. Images Area] shows the interior of the church before the latest restoration; the font is the same as now, the octagonal 19th-century one, but at the time it was located in the centre aisle, towards the west end of the nave; also visible in the old photograph is a very tall wooden cover of open-work, topped by what appears to be an angel finial, and suspended from the ceiling by a pulley system; that cover, no longer in the church, appears also to be modern. The 19th-century font has been moved since then, and it now stands beneath the second arch of the arcade that separates the nave from the south aisle; it has a plain and flat octagonal cover. English Heritage [Listing NGR: SP0091161648] (1954) reports: "rebuilt in 1853 by Butterfield; restored 1866-7 by Day of Worcester"; the move of the font and the rest of the changes visible from the old photograph may therefore have taken place between 1853 and 1867. [NB: Headless Cross St. Luke's is modern, of the mid-19th century, and had no earlier church there].